Sir, – Hurray to John Waters (Opinion, August 9th)! As usual he has hit the nail on the head. In sum, one can say the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act is a travesty. Nobody has an obligation to obey a "law" which is a travesty. Indeed the opposite is the case. Opposition to it is essential to ensure society does not drift downward into a totalitarian state. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK J PYNE,
Castleowen,
Blarney,
Co Cork.
Sir, – Andrew Doyle says that if the Mater hospital decides not to perform procedures under the new abortion legislation then it should immediately explain how it proposes to fund itself, suggesting that he believes that all State funding should be withdrawn (August 9th).
To follow this line of logic, perhaps Mr Doyle could then explain how, if the hospital were to close, he would propose to treat the 50,000 admissions to A & E and the thousands of elective, non-elective and day-care admissions which present at the Mater annually?
The debate on the legislation may be over, but the reaction to Fr Kevin Doran’s comments show that the ridiculous hyperbole of pro-choice activists is set to continue. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Brooklawn,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Sir, – In stating that the Protection of Life During Pregnancy legislation “Had no context in any urgent public need and was not canvassed before the electorate” (Opinion, August 9th), John Waters is either implausibly disingenuous or misinformed.
The need for abortion legislation emerged the day the Supreme Court ruled on the X case more than 20 years ago. It was canvassed before the electorate in two separate referendums and the duty to legislate was confirmed by a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in December 2010.
The “urgent public need” became unfortunately all too apparent at the death of Savita Halappanavar.
The divide of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” cannot, as John Waters points out, simply be equated to “Catholic” and “non-Catholic”.
However, the Catholic position on abortion must be viewed within the context of the Catholic Church’s anxiousness to control women and their bodies. The Catholic ethos has resulted in a consistent and manifest pattern of measures to subjugate women that range from the ridiculous (contraception should be illegal) to the brutal (symphysiotomies). Thus it becomes clear that the Catholic position on abortion, contrary to John Waters’s assertion, is very much the “statement of an ideological tenet”. – Yours, etc,
DIEGO FASCIATI,
St Luke’s Gate,
The Coombe, Dublin 8.
Sir, – Mary Olivia Sheehan (August 10th) criticises the ethos of the Mater hospital board and questions what would happen if a pregnant woman presented with an ectopic pregnancy such that her life was in danger. Then the ethos of the hospital, informed by Catholic Church teaching, would kick in and the woman’s life would be saved even if it meant the consequent death of the baby.
It seems Ms Sheehan has more in common with Fr Kevin Doran and the ethos of the hospital than she realises. – Yours, etc,
JOHN QUINN,
Iona Villas, Dublin 9.