Sir, - Recent reports have suggested that the Government may be considering holding a referendum to restrict the Supreme Court "X case" judgment by ruling out suicide as a ground for abortion.
It would be most unfortunate if these reports are accurate, since such a referendum would be both unnecessary and counter-productive. In November 1992, the Irish people rejected an identical proposal in the so-called "substantive issue" referendum. If this had been passed, the tragic child at the centre of the "C case" could have been legally forced to carry through her pregnancy. We have already had two cases involving pregnant and suicidal teenage girls. We should be working to ensure that more such children are not put at risk simply for the sake of appeasing a few independent TDs.
We do not need another divisive and pointless referendum on abortion. What we do need urgently, to protect the lives of women and the practice of doctors, is legislation implementing the "X case" ruling. Then we can begin to look at answering the needs of the many thousands of women who travel every year to England for abortion on grounds other than risk to life. - Yours, etc.,
Ivana Bacik, Law School, Trinity College, Dublin 2.