Sir, - Ann Furedi, spokesperson for "the UK's largest independent abortion provider", unconvincingly tries (June 30th) to refute my claim (Letters, June 13th and 26th) that UK figures for Irish abortions are unreliable.
She says that figures relating to residence requirements are taken from official notification forms. But she does not say that their genuineness is verified.
She also says that "since 75 per cent of abortions for women resident in England and Wales are paid for by the National Health Service, it would seem illogical for women to deliberately make themselves ineligible by claiming overseas residency." It would indeed be illogical for that 75 per cent - but not for those of the remaining 25 per cent who wish to avail of the practice of expediting abortions (late ones particularly) for foreigners.
At least Ms Furedi faces the unreliability issue, which is more than can be said of Irish users of the highly unreliable "6,000 or more Irish abortions annually in the UK" mantra. Of course, "abortion provider" is a euphemism for a service which, as we Irish see it, kills Irish people. - Yours, etc.,
Joe Foyle, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
Sir, It has often occurred to me that the fox will one day enjoy more protection in England than the foetus. While the psychological terror experienced by the fox when ladies and gentlemen ride to hounds has been brought to our attention in recent years, Ann Furedi of the innocuously named British Pregnancy Advisory Centre (June 30th) would have us believe that the destruction of innocent life in the womb of a mother has as much psychological consequence for the mother as the extraction of a tooth. Of course, I would be surprised if anyone capable of the shameful boast of being "the UK's largest independent abortion provider" were to shoot herself in the foot and admit that the truth is otherwise.
It is rather glib to conclude that women who have had abortions are quite untouched by that awful experience simply because they have not subsequently entered the Irish healthcare system. Anyone who has met and worked with women who have had an abortion knows that this is certainly, and tragically, not the case.
Ann Furedi considers herself to have illustrated that legal abortion is safe. What a pity that the defenceless unborn child, for whom abortion is never safe, is not worthy of her consideration or compassion! - Yours, etc.,
Father John M. Cunningham, O.P., Collegio San Clemente, Via Labicana, Rome.