Sir, - The Ulster Pregnancy Advisory Association has been forced to close its offices as a result of intimidation and harassment of its volunteer staff by sinister elements in anti-choice organisations.
The UPAA has provided more than abortion referrals to the Northern Ireland public. It has also given advice on contraception, safe sex, and all choices available for unwanted pregnancy. The workers involved in this important service have been systematically intimidated by pickets on their doorsteps and their place of work, an exercise associated with the worst elements of sectarianism in this part of the country. The anti-choice organisation responsible for this are attacking the right to information not only on abortion, but also on contraception. They do not believe women should have the right to control our own reproduction, our own sexuality at all.
Who are these bigots who attack the reproductive rights of women? They are a small minority of narrow-minded people who want women to return to the multiple pregnancies of the past. They see the forced closure of the UPAA as a "moral victory". However, the natural progression of their fascist tactics leads to fire-bombs and letter bombs, attacks on life which we in the pro-choice movement worldwide have been subjected to by the so-called "pro-life" movement, and which have led to the murder of doctors and clinic workers in the United States.
We in Alliance For Choice are proud of the work that we do in supporting women who find themselves faced with intolerable pregnancies. We call on all those who believe in a woman's right to choose, and all those who abhor the tactics of the anti-choice bigots, to speak out now.
We thank the workers of the UPAA for the work they have done in the past for women, and look forwards to the time when they can rejoin us in the fight for reproductive rights and services for women. In the meantime we will continue to raise this issue in the press, to support women in need, to fight to change the law in the North, and call for the extension of the 1967 Act to the North.-Yours, etc.,
Geraldine Quigley, Synge Court, Ballymagroarty, Derry; Goretti Horgan, Westland Avenue, Derry; Collette Devlin, Princes Street, Derry; Anita Villa, Drumard Park, Hazelbank, Derry; Roisin Barton, Brandywell Avenue, Derry.