Sir, - In the final paragraph of her letter (July 3rd) Sandra McAvoy - unwittingly, I think - identified precisely the fundamental issue on which a meeting of minds between the two sides in the abortion debate is unattainable.
Pro-life people support the equal right to life of the unborn and mother as set out in Article 40.3.30 of our Constitution; whereas Ms McAvoy's statement that we should be grateful to Women on Waves for putting women, rather than polls, centre stage, exemplifies perfectly the determination of pro-choice people never to acknowledge even that an innocent human life is destroyed in every abortion and the physical and mental health of the mother often adversely affected long-term.
For pro-lifers, compassion must be extended to both victims in an abortion situation; for pro-choicers, compassion is purely a one-way necessity. - Yours, etc.,
Mrs D. Bourke, Lee Road, Cork.