Abortion advice ‘too late in day’

Sir — The headline on Eilis O’Hanlon’s article (Sunday Independent, May 19) read ‘Abortion campaigners should resist the urge to politicise personal tragedy’.

That could be described as coming rather late in the day.

Prior to the referendum one side did politicise the personal tragedy of the Savita Halappanavar case — with the support of practically all of the media in Ireland.

Ms O’Hanlon states “it’s also best not to make arguments from the hardest of all cases”, but isn’t that what happened leading up to the referendum?

Ms O’Hanlon concludes “it’s about creating the best, most compassionate system possible, but it doesn’t ultimately change the parameters of the abortion argument”.

I’m not sure what she means, but if she is saying that abortion is acceptable even if it results in the abortion of “wanted babies” and “healthy babies” so that women have “bodily autonomy” she is right in saying that it does not change the “parameters of the abortion argument”.

Now that the consequences are becoming visible, it may prove somewhat embarrassing for those who ensured beforehand that such possibilities were not debated or even acknowledged.

Is it possible that people will now wake up to the fact that there was actually no debate on the vital issue of abortion but an orchestrated campaign to ensure that it was legalised here? Mary Stewart,

Ardeskin, Donegal Town