Sir, – Ruth Cullen (Opinion, March 5th) accuses me of attempting to create the impression that pregnant women in Ireland are being denied medical treatment because of the lack of available abortion services.
On December 16th, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that C in the ABC Vs Ireland case could not access life-saving abortion services.
Indeed the Government was unable to cite before the court a single case of an abortion lawfully carried out in Ireland.
Similarly on December 21st, 2010, The Irish Times reported that Michelle Harte was denied a life- saving abortion in an Irish hospital against the wishes of her medical advisers. Padraig Yeates wrote an account of the denial of services to Sheila Hodgers in The Irish Times as far back as September 1983. The Bill I am proposing is long overdue. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Ruth Cullen’s article on abortion in Ireland (Opinion, March 5th) has had two effects personally. First, a sense of astonishment that The Irish Times has published this article, demonstrating that the exception proves the rule of completely biased reporting on issues which don’t fit into the mould of politically correct “post- Christian Ireland”, which, like an obsequious lapdog, is desperate to prove itself at the leading edge of European liberalism.
Second, a sense of gratitude at the clear and irrefutable truths contained in her article. The more science reveals of the intricacies of human life the more it is producing embarrassing evidence of the lies and half-truths promulgated by those who mastermind the for-profit abortion industry.
I am nevertheless grateful to The Irish Times for publishing the column. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Abortion exists in Ireland: at least 12 women a day seek abortion services. The only thing is that the procedure doesn’t happen in Ireland.
For how long more must we pretend that “Ireland doesn’t have abortion”? For how long more will Irish women be subjected to extreme physical, emotional and financial hardship by being forced to travel to a foreign country for a standard medical procedure, and then return home to face heavy walls of stigma and silence? It is about time the most basic human rights of Irish women were respected: the right to reproductive healthcare and choice, the right to bodily autonomy, the right to privacy, the right to be free from humiliating and degrading treatment, the right to non-discrimination?
In the eyes of the European Court of Human Rights and in the eyes of most men and women in our society, Ireland in 2012 is a gross human rights violator.
For how long more can our Government and legislators continue to dodge this dire state of affairs? Legislation for the X case should be introduced now. – Yours, etc,