Sir, – Patricia Lohr of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service states that last year there was one case where a woman with cancer contacted BPAS to have an abortion after she had been refused one in Ireland but was ultimately too unwell to make the journey (September 13th).
Dr Lohr does not clarify the medical grounds on which the abortion was sought by the woman or give any information as to how the woman’s cancer or pregnancy had been or was subsequently managed in Ireland. In the absence of such further detail, it is unclear why this unfortunate woman’s plight can or should be offered as evidence that abortion is needed in Ireland to save women’s lives.
If, as is possible, this woman was wrongly refused necessary life-saving treatment by her Irish doctors then that is an argument for introducing clear guidelines to codify was is currently best practice in Ireland and to provide for appropriate systems of speedy review of treatment decisions.
That does not require legislation for abortion and would also provide a response to the problem of clarity identified by the ABC v Ireland decision of the ECHR.
The reality is that on foot of current practice Ireland, without access to abortion, consistently ranks as one of the safest countries in the world for a woman to be pregnant. Safer, indeed, than the UK where BPAS is happy to oversee the provision of abortion on demand. – Yours, etc,