Madam, - Sandra McAvoy of the Cork Women's Right to Choose Group, was wide of the mark in stating (January 13th) that Mr Justice Niall McCarthy rebuked politicians for, allegedly, denying women safe and legal abortions in Ireland.
The judge, in fact, admonished the politicians, in the course of the 1992 X case, for failing to define the term "unborn" in the 1983 Eighth Amendment (Article 40.3.3), and for not clarifying the precise meaning of the two subclauses in the amendment.
He went on to say that the purpose of the Eighth Amendment was "to enshrine in the Constitution the protection of the right to life of the unborn, thus precluding the Legislature from an unqualified repeal of Section 58 of the 1861 (Offences Against the Persons) Act, or otherwise in general legalising abortion".
Mr McAvoy's suggestion that induced abortion should be legalised in the State for the already discredited "hard case" reasons deserves the same response as her false interpretation of Mr Justice McCarthy's remarks. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK MOLLOY, Brackenstown, Swords, Co Dublin.