A chara, – It was a joy to see the thousands of people who marched through Dublin last Saturday expressing concern at Ireland’s spiralling abortion numbers (“Anti-abortion rally in Dublin hears call for taskforce to address ‘soaring’ abortion numbers”, News, July 6th). Figures published by the Department of Health for 2023 inform us that 10,033 abortion procedures took place, which was nearly 2,000 more than in 2022. The organisers of the march called for the Government to establish a taskforce to discuss the issues contributing to this increase, which is to be welcomed. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, we should all agree that these figures are shocking, and any supports that could be implemented to help reduce these numbers would be of benefit to the women experiencing a crisis pregnancy.
In Ireland, we have a long history of not discussing issues which may cause us to challenge our perceptions and values, which is confirmed by the silence from Government on this issue. – Yours, etc,
EAMONN O’HARA,
Manorcunningham,
Co Donegal.