Honesty admired but odd assumptions
Sir — “I don’t have an easy time with abortion. I try not to think about it,” says Ciara O’Connor in her recent article (Sunday Independent, June 18). I admire her honesty, but have difficulty with some of her assumptions. She claims that we “need” abortions. Of course, that does not sound quite as bad as saying “we need to kill babies in the womb” — but that is the reality and I wish that more people would face up to this.
Her reference to how “the vast majority of abortions happen very early on in pregnancies, before the eyelashes and tiny fingernails in the pictures thrust at women going into clinics are formed” illustrates the cover-up of what abortion really is.
Great criticism has been made about the Church and other organisations covering up abuse, but that can never equal the cover-up involved in abortion. Actually, the baby’s heartbeat is there at 21 days after conception.
It is beyond reasoning that Ms O’Connor can refer to abortion as “safe, compassionate and humane” when it involves destroying the innocent unborn baby. The UN Human Rights Committee needs to redefine its description when it refers to the lack of access to abortion as “torture”, when that properly refers to how an abortion is carried out.
I promise Ms O’Connor that voting against repeal of the Eighth Amendment will certainly not feel much worse, when it ensures that equal right to life of both mother and the baby are protected and that no baby is deliberately killed. What happened to equality after the marriage referendum? What evidence of compassion and care for the weak and vulnerable when we do not allow them the first and basic human rights: the right to be born, no matter how short that life may be.
Finally, I do not share Ms O’Connor’s optimism regarding legislation for abortion when it is simply not possible to restrict it. Check the situation in Britain where the law is quite restrictive, but unlimited abortion is available there. I hope that we vote to retain the protection we have in our Constitution and to ensure the lives of all mothers and their babies are cherished and receive all the support and assistance they need, but deliberately killing either patient can never be acceptable. Mary Stewart (Mrs),
Donegal Town