Sir, - Father Kevin Hegarty's suggestion that we return to the 1861 law on abortion (Rite And Reason, March 13th) would, in fact, abrogate the protection of unborn children to an even greater extent than the 1992 X case judgment.
The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 permitted abortion to preserve the life of the mother, and this exception was broadly interpreted in the English case of R v Bourne (1939) to include abortion when continuance of the pregnancy would have the mother "a physical or mental wreck". The Bourne decision was loosely reinterpreted by the Northern Ireland High Court in 1995 to allow abortion when there was a risk to the "physical health or mental well-being of the mother' (my italics).
Were we to revert to the 1861 Act, it is highly probable that our courts would follow these English and Northern Irish precedents which are far more liberal than the X judgment which allows abortion only when there is a`'a real and substantial risk to the life, as distance from the health, of the mother."
Medical evidence now shows that direct procured abortion is never necessary to save the life of the mother. The only way to fully protect the right to life of unborn children in this country is a new constitutional referendum to reverse the effects of the decision - Yours, etc.,
John Mckeever, Secretary, The Pro-Life Society, St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Co Kildare.