Sir, - In her latest article on the abortion issue (Opinion, March 30th), Medb Ruane asserts that the "anti-abortion lobby" is now advocating the repeal of the Eighth Amendment (1983) and reverting to the Westminster 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. So far as I am aware, Father Kevin Hegarty was the first to propose this solution. Is the Pro-Life Campaign at all likely to reverse its policy of 1981-1983, which succeeded in the passing (by a two-thirds majority of those who voted) of the amendment guaranteeing the right to life of the unborn with due regard to the right of life to the mother? That is still a constitutional provision and will be unless repealed by another amendment.
The weakness of the 1861 Act was that it could be repealed at any time by the Oireachtas, as two groups founded in Dublin in 1980 were urging. Ms Ruane cites statistics for "Irish" abortions since 1983. She is obviously referring to abortions carried out on Irish women in England, under whose permissive legislation 5.3 million abortions have been performed since 1967, only 212 of which involved a danger to life of the mother. (See Northern Ireland Assembly Debates, June 20th, 2000.) - Yours, etc.,
Prof Cornelius O'Leary, Queen's University, Belfast 7.