Sir, - Once again the "pro-life" lobby has taken it upon itself to decide whether or not Irish women should have the right to make an informed decision on abortion. These narrow-minded pedants have for too long made women feel guilty for exercising their right to decide what happens to their own bodies.
This comes after statistics from England show that a record number of Irish women travelled to the United Kingdom for abortions in 1999. Why do people continue to find this surprising when Irish women have no choice but to flee to England like refugees to avail of a procedure that should be every women's right? These women are desperate; they are not murderers and they should not be made to feel like pharisees at a time when they are already under huge emotional stress.
The Pro-Life Campaign blames the 1995 Information Act for the increase in Irish women undergoing abortions. I hope they have their collective tongues planted firmly in their cheeks when they say this. Women are not so impressionable that they will immediately decide to have an abortion just because the information about it is available. This is eerily reminiscent of the anti-divorce lobby's farcical argument that, just because divorce became available, every couple would be rushing out to start proceedings. I think that we are all well able to make our own decisions in this type of matter.
I refuse to let a group of information fascists decide whether or not I am entitled to make an informed choice on abortion. If we allow these people to withhold information from us we will be returning to the dark ages when the Church decided what we were and were not allowed to read. - Yours, etc.
Eimear Coffey, Hillsbrook Avenue, Perrystown, Dublin 12.