Sir, – Your correspondent, Trevor Troy (Letters, August 4th), obviously cannot see the difference between the right to express an opinion and the right for a vulnerable individual to be protected from intimidation, when he argues against safe access zones around abortion facilities.
There are many instances where rights that are generally protected in regard to the population at large are suspended in individual cases: we do not allow family law hearing to be made public, even though it is a basic principle of democracy that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done; individuals can apply for protection against being accosted by such as paparazzi, and so on.
A woman in need of a termination, who has already been subjected to quite onerous qualifying criteria under the law, is entitled to be protected from those who would like to make her situation worse. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
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Dublin 14.