Victims have suffered enough

■ I not think that the status of a 12-week foetus is equal to that of the woman upon whom that foetus depends.

I cannot bring myself to force any woman (some of whom are children) who is pregnant as the result of having been raped to carry that pregnancy to full term. That sounds to me like extending the rape for a further nine months.

Further, I cannot bring myself to have a respectful debate with those who purport to “love both” and have shown themselves to be callous and cruel towards the many Irish women who have found it necessary to terminate their pregnancies.

They have done this by trivialising the myriad, desperately sad and upsetting reasons for seeking the termination of an unwanted pregnancy by talking about “social abortions” and “abortions on demand”. The debates of recent weeks must have been very difficult for these women to listen to. My heart goes out to them.

Michael Shemeld Co Cork