Sir, - How dare "Women on Waves" offer us an abortion service within sight of our sacred shores (rather than the time-honoured solution well over the horizon)? How dare they, coming from the heart of a godless Europe, suggest they might help our Irish women, left alone in desperate circumstances?
But hang on. . .The Netherlands' abortion rate is one of the lowest in the world - remarkably, lower than that of the UK, the rest of Europe, the US or Canada. And the Dutch have the lowest teenage birth rate in the world (6.9 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 - which is six times lower than the UK's).
Is it possible that we could learn something from the Dutch about reducing the scourge of abortion? Such as how to run a properly thought-out, integrated, parent-school sex education system? But no, that would entail all our children knowing at an unseemly early age how babies are made. No, no, no. Even if the alternative were that our children must continue to conceive and abort - that would be too much! - Yours, etc.,
Neal E. Sherman, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.