Man up and stand for repeal

■ The campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment is being led by a confident generation of young women who have lived their entire adult lives under the constitutional rule that their life is of equal worth to that of a fertilised egg.

These women have stood up and said enough is enough and they are to be admired for their courage.

As a man who thinks of himself as liberal, I find it disappointing there isn’t more gender balance in the repeal campaign.

Without doubt, it is only those who can become pregnant who are directly affected by the Eighth, who can be refused life-saving medical treatment while pregnant, or be forced to carry to term a foetus knowing it will die with its first breath.

There are men who say because it’s none of our business, and because it’s for women to make the decision that we should stand aside.

But our standing aside means women not being allowed to make those decisions anyway. Each of those women could be a sister, a mother, a wife, a friend and could any day call for you to stand strong beside her. Can’t we man up and stand beside the women of Ireland on referendum day?

Ciarán Mac Lochlainn Co Galway