Let democracy take its course

Sir — In the US where abortion is legally available, the Supreme Court there reaffirmed its stance in a ruling on June 27 striking down a Texas state law that would have required abortions in mini-hospitals, instead of regular clinics.

In a 5-3 ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that “medically unnecessary abortion restrictions will never be tolerated by the highest court” before adding “when a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners... at great risk to their health”.

I thought of her words while reading Donal Lynch’s instructive article (Sunday Independent, September 11).

Your writer wonders why Repeal the Eighth supporters aren’t “heartened by someone coming out and speaking publicly for their cause”.

Maybe it’s just because as a man, even a gay one, he will never be able to fully appreciate what Ms Ginsberg describes as “women in desperate circumstances”.

I also doubt very much if any one of the 165,438 Irish women and girls that accessed UK abortion services between 1980 and 2015 (including 3,451 last year), according to the UK’s department of health, did not consider for one moment the actual termination process.

We have heard many personal stories in this debate detailing the pain and anguish that women have to go through such as bringing home the remains of the foetus in a ‘cardboard’ box.

It’s time, therefore, to give a voice to all those that have come of voting age since 1983 and let democracy take its course. Tom McElligott

Listowel