Madam, - I thought we were suddenly plunged back into 1992 when I heard that the HSE had contacted gardaí to prevent a 17-year-old girl from travelling to the UK for an abortion. After the X case, the Irish people voted for the right to travel abroad - in other words, we decided that Ireland was not a police state.
It's monstrous to force an unfortunate girl to continue a pregnancy when her baby has no chance of survival.
In any other European country her right to an abortion would be unquestioned in those circumstances.
It seems to me that D is being punished simply for being a minor. If she were 18 instead of 17 she could take a plane or a ferry to the UK without anyone interfering.
We're told that she is "in the care" of the HSE. With "care" like this, who needs oppression? - Yours, etc,
GRÁINNE FARREN, George's Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Once again, religion raises its head ingloriously - whether in having coaxed weak politicians deliver an Irish solution to an Irish problem, or in undermining the judgment of reasonable men and women when religious and civil rights are in conflict. In the end a young woman is served an unimaginable, abominable sentence. For shame. - Yours, etc,
OWEN MORTON, Sutton, Dublin 13.