Why pro-life still has vital role to play

Sir — Jody Corcoran (Sunday Independent, June 3) provides the best analysis I have seen of why the Yes vote in the recent abortion referendum was so comprehensive. When faced with a binary choice, the vast majority of the undecided voters went for Yes in the end. These are people who would normally consider themselves pro-life but in the overall scheme of things felt there were too many holes in the absolutist pro-life arguments.

As a pro-life advocate I never gave due recognition to certain realities in this debate. If a woman is determined to have an abortion she will have it whether legally in another jurisdiction or illegally here. In fact in a previous referendum we voted to explicitly allow women to travel abroad to have terminations which was hypocritical. I never recognised either the hard cases of rape/incest or fatal foetal abnormalities where some women in these situations just cannot go ahead with their pregnancies. The undecided voters grappled with these issues and in the end reluctantly voted Yes. Compassion and respect for the woman surpassed their prolife views.

Despite being an absolutist pro-life advocate I accept the result of the referendum. If there weren’t people like me or the undecided voters there would never have been a need for the referendum in the first place as the original provision would never have been inserted into the Constitution 35 years ago.

In the intervening years a sea change in people’s attitudes to abortion has occurred. Time will tell what the end result will be but this won’t begin to become apparent for at least five years. We reap what we sow.

I still believe it is possible for pro-life people like me to continue to advance our views in this new Ireland. Tommy Roddy, Galway