Sir, - As a pharmacist, I must take issue with your front-page report of November 14th which describes the morning-after pill as a contraceptive, and not an abortifacient.
It is a fact that this medication is used up to 72 hours after intercourse when any egg present may have been fertilised. It is also a fact that one of its mechanisms of action is to cause, via a surge of hormones, the uterus to shed its lining, thus preventing the implantation of any such egg, or indeed causing its expulsion if it has implanted already.
While other effects are possible, and indeed while there may not even be a fertilised egg present, this nevertheless remains one possible effect; an effect which prior to the Taoiseach's attempt to define abortion (and by extension human life) as taking place only after implantation, would have been defined as an abortifacient effect.
It is important to note that many "medical experts" find this fundamental re-definition repugnant, particularly in view of the recorded survival of many foetuses outside the uterus. It has not even passed the Oireachtas, never mind a referendum.
Quite why the Irish Medicines Board should now, at this crucial time, choose to accept it is utterly baffling, but what is certain is that it very much suits the agenda of the Government in its attempt to legalise abortion in the first 72 hours of life.
Perhaps as an exercise in both balance and transparency, The Irish Times might choose to investigate this further? - Yours, etc.,
David Carroll, MPSI, Castle Gate, Lord Edward Street, Dublin 2.