Sir, – In relation to the Roman Catholic archbishops’ statement, Joe Kelly of the Evangelical Alliance “welcomes informed, clear and passionate statements” (December 21st). Between 1980 and 2011 at least 150,000 women travelled from Ireland for abortions. Perhaps the feelings of these women should be considered when welcoming “passionate statements”. – Yours, etc.
Sir, – Your edition of December 20th reports two statements by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny. He says the proposed legislation will promote “a culture of life for the protection of lives of women and respect for the mothers”. I’d be more assured if he mentioned protecting the baby’s life as well. And I’d suggest he’ll be a laughing stock if he equates bringing in abortion legislation with a “culture of life”. Then he says: ‘“We are certainly not going to have any regime here that leads to abortion on demand”. Even the UK doesn’t have abortion on demand, as there are some limitations, so that’s not setting the bar very high. We could end up with a liberal abortion regime with the Government still claiming we hadn’t abortion on demand. – Yours, etc,