Sir, - Mrs Mary Stewart (July 3rd) refers to women who are "traumatised and guilt-ridden" after having an abortion. Indeed, this is a common perception, and surely this is the case for some women. But for all? Have any properly controlled studies been done on the psychological after-effects of abortion? Is there any empirical evidence of long-term - or even short-term - psychological trauma for the majority of women who have abortions? The fact that anecdotal evidence may weigh in favour of negative affects could simply be due to the possibility that traumatised women are more likely to seek post-abortion counselling. If a properly configured and controlled contemporary study of this topic is available, I'm sure many Irish Times readers would be interested to know. If "pro-life" groups feel "the greatest compassion and understanding for those who have had an abortion", then they might look close to home to see one possible source of these presumed feelings of trauma and guilt. Their posters of aborted foetuses certainly would do nothing to ease them and one wonders if they are indeed designed to induce these feelings. - Yours, etc.,
Carol Stephenson, Blackrock, Co Dublin.