Sir, - Having spoken with a number of people active in different pro-life groups and organisations, it is becoming clear to me that there are very serious concerns about the forthcoming referendum.
Far from respecting the dignity of human life, and vigorously defending it, this proposal has all the appearance of a shaky compromise. People can vote for it and find themselves a party to an ignominious defeat in the courts within 12 months; or they can vote against it, and witness a re-enactment of the UK Bourne case, also in the courts.
The 70 per cent of the Irish public who reject abortion are being threatened with it regardless of which way they vote.
For the reality is, while all the huffing and puffing for a referendum has been going on, the Fianna Fβil government has been quietly putting in place, or allowed to be put in place, a host of landmines. We have had the X case (with its defective evidence), the C case, concessions to the EU and UN, commitment to the International Criminal Court, and a Human Rights Commission and a Supereme Court both likely to support what are euphemistically described as "international human rights standards".
What we are now being offered in this referendum does not give the necessary robust protection to human life, to mothers, or to their babies, from these well-considered hazards.
It is not a pro-life proposal and it should be rejected. - Yours, etc.
Richard Greene, Chairman, Irish Civil Rights Association, Roebuck Road, Dublin 14.