Sir, - Cornelius O'Leary (September 15th) refers in passing to the "the constitutional prohibition [of abortion] of 1983".
For how long more must we endure the well-intentioned casuistry which erroneously uses semantics to assert that our 1983 amendment prohibited, and prohibits, abortion. It cannot do so as that would (as pointed out by Archbishop Connell to the Oireachtas Review Committee) exclude recourse to abortion (i.e. termination of a pregnancy before the child is viable outside the womb) when necessary to save mothers' lives.
Furthermore, as pointed out in my article in your columns (Opinion, July 31st), our surgeons, with full moral and legal justification, perform an average of about 10 such abortions weekly. No one has even attempted to contradict the logic of that article publicly.
The tragedy, to my mind, of the above-mentioned use of semantics is it has distracted attention and effort from reversing Catholic freefall since 1983. That is why I shall continue to oppose, as best I can, such use by well-intentioned people. - Yours etc.,
Joe Foyle, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.