Sir, - The issue of abortion, involving the destruction of human life, is by definition a human rights issue. Every human being, male or female, has a right to express an opinion.
I know that Joe Foyle (September 20th) does not desire legalised abortion in Ireland, but he appears to have been deceived by the propaganda of those who do. Before the 8th amendment (1983) the only legislative prohibition of abortion was contained in the (British) Offences against the Person Act (1861). Between 1861 and 1983 that prohibition was never deemed to apply to procedures when the women's life was in danger, as in ectopic pregnancy and cancer of the womb. That is still the legal position.
I rely on the recent statement of the Irish Institute of Obstetrician Gynaecologists (29th February):
"We consider that there is a fundamental difference between abortion carried out with the intention of taking the life of the baby, for example, for social reasons, and the unavoidable death of the baby resulting from essential treatment to protect the life of the mother."
I can assure Dr Margaret Ward (September 21st) that I am familiar with the debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly on June 20th. The motion that the Assembly was opposed to the extension of the British Abortion Act (1967) to Northern Ireland was proposed by Jim Wells (DUP) and carried without a division on a free vote. The amendment moved by Monica McWilliams (Women's Coalition), which in her own words was not promoting abortion, but referring it to Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee for a detailed examination, was defeated by 43 votes to 15.
The point was made in the debate that out of 5.3 million abortions carried out in England since 1967, only 212 involved a danger to the life of the mother. In the words of Seamus Close MLA: "The tragedy in society today is that abortion has become almost respectable in some people's eyes." - Yours, etc.,
Cornelius O'Leary, Department of Politics, Queen's University, Belfast 7.