Sir, - I disagree with Dr Mary Henry's view (August 19th) that the 1983 abortion referendum had absolutely no effect on the numbers of women going to Britain for abortions.
Conceptions out of wedlock rose steadily since the 1970s and statistical data indicates that it is mainly single women who go for abortions. In the year after the passage of the 1983 amendment, abortions were just under 4,000. Yet they did not pass 4,000 until 1990 and actually declined well below the 1984 level in the intervening years, despite births out of wedlock more than doubling in the same period.
Between 1985 and 1998, abortions increased by about 51 per cent but the pool of assumed "crisis" pregnancies - abortions + unwed births - increased by about 130 per cent in the same period. Obviously a larger proportion of those in crisis pregnancies accept a solution which respected the life of the unborn child and this is a natural result of the majority pro-life ethos of the country.
However, one abortion is one too many and measures must be taken to reduce them. The 1995 legislation piloted through the Dail by Michael Noonan has only worsened the situation. The value of unborn human life in the age we live in needs to be affirmed again and again publicly. A referendum to restore the legal protection which the people fully intended in 1983 would be a good start. - Yours, etc.,
Tom O'Gorman,
Beechpark Avenue, Castleknock, Dublin 15.