Yes vote will show that we actually care about women
I AM confused by the posters that are on lamp posts around the country at the moment, telling us that one in five pregnancies is terminated by abortion in England.
What exactly are we supposed to read from this? Is it telling us that, because Irish abortions are mostly carried out in England under English laws, Irish abortions are running at the English rate? Or are we to conclude that, because this is the rate in England, that Ireland will never have such a rate because we are Irish, not English?
Or is it that the producer of this poster is someone who has their head so far in the sand they believe Irish women are not accessing abortion services at the moment, and that if abortion is available to women in Ireland, they will suddenly start terminating one in five of their pregnancies?
Whatever the intention of the producer of that poster, one thing is known: Irish women, like women all over the world, have been terminating pregnancies when they felt an extreme need to do so.
We have no idea what Ireland’s abortion rate is. We have only incomplete records from countries where Irish women go to have an abortion, and we have no idea how many Irish women are buying the abortion pill on the internet. For all we know, Ireland’s abortion rate could be as high or higher than that in England.
Everyone wants abortion to be as rare as possible. However, as long as most Irish abortions take place in a foreign jurisdiction, we are not only showing our lack of care for the women who are travelling, but also a lack of care about our abortion rate, and a corresponding lack of interest in doing anything about it. A No vote is a vote to remain ignorant and unreactive. A Yes vote is for honesty, knowledge and action. ABIGAIL ROONEY,
Co. Wicklow. ...I SAW a gruesome post-abortion image in a banner held aloft by three people recently. No one in their right mind could not be moved. Either by revulsion at the image, or what it is pointing to.
Recent articles and radio interviews have highlighted how awful it is and some are looking for some constraint on the use of the image. Does it not show the calls for a respectful debate have sanitised the reality to date?
So what we need to ask is what is truly offensive here. The image we are confronted with or the reality of abortion? Could it be that we don’t want to see the image because we do not want to see the reality as it is so clearly a human? That what could be done in our name is so dehumanising and appalling? Could it be because we don’t want to see the images because we don’t want have to explain them to our children?
And if we can’t explain it to a child, then there is something seriously wrong about what we as adults are proposing to do to our children in the womb.
So if you don’t want to see these specific images turned to a largescale reality, and don’t want to have to explain that to your children, then we together must, in informed conscience, vote No. WILLIE HAYES, Co. Cork.
Is Kim scared of our TDs?
The WWIII doom-and-gloom merchants have re-emerged from their bunkers, thanks to Kim Jong-un’s reversal of his nuclear plans. As usual it’s Donald Trump claiming credit for his standing-up to the dictator’s threats.
However, the real facts are that Kim could not risk/tolerate the proposed visit of John Halligan TD and his mob to North Korea, and it was just easier to ‘ban the bomb’ and invite Donald and discuss bad-haircuts!
SEAN KELLY, Co. Waterford.
Avicii tragic death
I WAS very sad to hear of the death of DJ Avicii this weekend.
Apart from the fact that he will never produce any more music, the really tragic part is it seems his lifestyle was to blame. He said himself he had pancreatitis at 21 from drinking excessively.
I’m in my 20s and like to party and his death is a bit of a wake-up call: none of us is immortal. In a country that worships booze (Ireland), it’s worth remembering.
MATT WALKER, Dublin.