IVANA BACIK,
Sir, - I read Mary Harney's letter of February 5th with disbelief. Can she really be the same politician who said in 1992 that abortion "is the lesser of two evils where a woman's life is at risk, where her health is seriously at risk, or if somebody has been raped or the subject of a sexual crime such as incest. It is also the lesser of two evils where somebody may take her own life.
"In these limited circumstances - and they are limited - the option of terminating a pregnancy should be available to Irish women in Ireland"?
How can somebody who once took such a humane and compassionate approach to women with crisis pregnancies now endorse this dangerous and anti-woman referendum? Dangerous, because it will deny the most vulnerable women the right to abortion here, and will deny health boards the power to bring rape victims abroad for abortion even where they are suicidal. Anti-woman, because it is based on a fundamental distrust of women, on a belief that if suicide is retained as a ground for legal abortion, women (and psychiatrists) will lie and fake suicide in order to obtain abortion.
Contrary to the Tanaiste's claim, the referendum will not even protect the morning-after pill or IUD, since it will not prevent a civil action being taken challenging their availability under existing constitutional law.
The Tánaiste has not only done a massive U-turn since 1992; she appears to misunderstand the very nature of her Government's own referendum. - Yours, etc.,
IVANA BACIK, Law Library, Four Courts, Dublin 7.
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Sir, - Down's Syndrome has virtually been eliminated in Belgium, my daughter tells me. And in case you think the Belgians have made some dramatic medical breakthrough, I'm sorry to say no. It has been done by aborting unborn babies discovered to have this genetic defect. This is what we mean by "a woman's right to choose".
And lest what I am going to say sounds misogynistic, I fully accept that abortion choices are frequently made with agreement, support and possibly pressure from spouses' partners. Thousands of Irish women travel to Britain every year for abortions and you would be forgiven for believing they are all raped, pregnant teenagers. The reality is that most of them are people for whom pregnancy is currently inconvenient, troublesome, embarrassing, career-threatening - choose your own adjective. It's the same in Britain and most of the Western world.
I don't wish to dismiss these problems. They loom large in people's lives at the time. But the question is: can we accept killing the baby as a solution?
It all depends on how you view the foetus and what rights you think it has. The Adelaide Hospital Society's letter to the Minister for Health (The Irish Times, February 4th) expressed much concern about women who wanted abortions and women who have had abortions. And that is fair enough. But there was not a single mention of the rights of the unborn child. In Carol Coulter's report on the Blackdown (abortion) clinic, the manager tells us that the "products" which could be up to 20 weeks in the womb, are suctioned out of the uterus and if the mother does not want "them" there is a contract with an incineration company. Charming. Clearly products have no rights. They are to be acquired or disposed of as desired. If that is what you believe, you have no problem with "a woman's right to choose".
I'm afraid, in spite of liberal credentials that I value, that I can't accept it. I know there is nothing I can do about other jurisdictions, but I want to see this right limited in Ireland. I want the protection of the mother's life to be the top priority, but after that I believe the child has rights. I don't take this position from any abstract theory or religious doctrine. I just know and feel from the experience of my life that it is right. A line has to be drawn and I believe the referendum proposals reflect a reasonable compromise which I find acceptable.
I welcome the establishment of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. I hope it is well funded and active. I deplore the barriers to effective sex education in schools and urge those who oppose abortion also to recognise the responsibility to address the issue of education and prevention as a matter of urgency. But the freedom to dispose of unwanted pregnancies that prevails in most of Western society, any time, any reason, under the slogan "a woman's right to choose" is horrific and I hope we never see it in this country. - Yours, etc.,
TERRY BYRNE, The Stiles Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3.
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Sir, - The Government, in asking us to support its abortion referendum, is asking us to forget the "X" and "C" cases.
How could we? The country was convulsed when they occurred. We must never forget "X" and "C", two young girls whose condition made us realise that abortion is not a simple issue, as some would have us believe. - Yours, etc.,
KATHRYN MULREADY, Calderwood Road, Dublin 9.