Sir, – Kathy Sheridan refers to an article I wrote regarding the number of abortions carried out where the baby had a life-limiting condition and says that "'fewer than 50 abortions per year' was the breezy conclusion of one anti-choice campaigner" ("Wallace abortion bill flawed but foot-dragging must stop", Opinion & Analysis, July 6th).
That misrepresentation is beneath her.
I have never written “breezily” about abortion, and her description was chosen to imply to the reader that I was unsympathetic regarding the distress of families who have been told their baby may not live long after birth.
In fact, it is precisely because I have listened to so many families, and because I understand from my own family the hurt and pain of that loss, that I believe so strongly that these are our most special babies who require our special protection. Their families deserve better than abortion, and should be offered perinatal hospice care so that they can have time with their babies and find a pathway to healing. Many of the parents I talked to this week are distressed by the current debate, where their babies are continually referred to as “fatal abnormalities”.
Contrary to what your columnist claimed elsewhere in her piece, my article was written in response to the claim made by John Halligan in the Dáil, when he claimed that 1,200 Irish women travelled for abortions every year because baby was diagnosed with a life-limiting condition.
As I explained, the statistics from the British department of health showed that number to be closer to an average of 50 per year.
Her use of the term “anti-choice” to describe my position is childish and ludicrous. Quite obviously, I am not against women having choices, and, as the mother of four daughters, I am just as supportive as Kathy Sheridan of women having opportunities and achieving equality.
I also know, however, that every baby has a right to life, and if we are to truly support women, we must continue to reject the medieval answer of abortion. – Yours, etc,
NIAMH UÍ BHRIAIN,
The Life Institute,
Dublin 1.