Sir, – Clare Daly TD, (Letters 7th March) writes that the Government was unable to cite a single case of an abortion carried out in Ireland before the European Court of Human Rights.
Does this not suggest therefore that pregnant women in Ireland can currently access and receive life-saving medical treatment as required? We know from the latest UN statistics on maternal mortality that Ireland is one of the safest countries in the world for a woman to be pregnant. It is unhelpful in this discussion to use euphemistic language to disguise and confuse the general public. The title of Ms Daly’s Bill before the Oireachtas – Medical Treatment (Termination of Pregnancy in Case of Risk to Life of Pregnant Woman) Bill – does exactly that. One would have the impression reading the title of the Bill that women in Ireland do not receive appropriate medical treatment. This is merely spin couched in ideological rhetoric.
What Ms Daly is proposing rather, is to make the direct termination of an unwanted pregnancy legal in Ireland, where there is no effort to save the life of the baby.
This week we focus on the contribution of women to society as we mark International Women’s Day. If, as a society, we are serious about being pro-woman then the abortion discussion cannot become lost in feminist fancy. We must consider the mounting medical and scientific evidence of the negative consequences of abortion and listen as well to the experiences of the many women who regret their abortions. – Yours, etc,