Sir, - The letter (June 16th) by Joan Gallagher, Secretary of the Pro-Choice Campaign is published under the title "The Right to Abortion." In an earlier letter (May 19th) Ivana Bacik and Aileen O'Carroll of TCD wrote on behalf of the "Dublin Abortion Rights Group" in support of the Adelaide Hospital Society's stance on abortion. Both letters expressed concern for the health of the mother and rightly so.
It is relevant to note in this regard that the late Mr Justice Brian Walsh in a lecture at TCD in February 1994 said: "Insofar as the mother is concerned, we are assured by the experts in the field, namely the leading obstetricians in this country, that there are no medical indications for `therapeutic' abortion in the present state of medicine in Ireland."
He went on to say: "It appears to me imperative that there should be an amendment of the Constitution stating in clear terms that the Constitution protects unborn life from direct attack whilst ensuring that all mothers receive all necessary medical treatment, even where it is forseeable that this may result indirectly, as a side effect, in the death of the unborn."
It seems to me inconceivable that the direct taking of the life of an unborn child be called a "right" or a "choice". - Yours, etc., Ivo O'Sullivan,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.