SANDRA McAVOY,
Sir, - Who said this in 1992? "Rolling back the Supreme Court decision is a euphemism for tilting the scales of justice so as to force Irish women (including rape victims) to carry a real and substantial risk.
"Will someone tell the Taoiseach that rolling back the Supreme Court decision is not on? Irish women will not accept it. Irish men and women who share any degree of imagination and compassion will not wear it. Nobody wants an Irish court handing down injunctions to 14-year-old rape victims except a few zealots and their allies with withered emotions".
Was it Mary Harney? Liz O'Donnell? Desmond O'Malley? It could have been any of them, for they all expressed similar sentiments at the time. But no, it was the present Attorney General, Michael McDowell.
How can a man who, in 1992, understood the implications for women of such an action oversee the current Fianna Fáil/PD attempt not only to roll back the X-case judgment but also to impose up to 12 years imprisonment on women who cannot afford to travel and who attempt to have an abortion in Ireland? (Don't say it won't happen. Look at the Portuguese case.)
Does cloistering in the AG's office wither the emotions? Has too long a period in power cocooned all of the PDs from the harsh reality that at least 7,000 Irish women face every year? What happened to compassion? Did they ditch the last grains of it with their principles - and their self-selected role as guardians of the interests of Irish women - in their desire to cling to their current partners in Government?
If the AG's career move to Leinster House does not go to plan, a stint in Free Legal Aid might help him rediscover real life. As for his colleagues (of both parties), perhaps a salutary period in the wilderness? - Yours, etc.,
SANDRA McAVOY, Ballincurrig Park, Cork.