Society’s attitudes to abortion must change to respect rights of unborn children

In response to Martin Foreman (Letters, 17 September), no one wants to see women risking their lives by having back-street abortions.

I qualified in medicine in 1967, the year the Abortion Act was passed, and I well remember my teachers assuring me that it would be used only for a few “difficult cases”. How wrong they were! With- in a few years the rate of abortions in Britain rose to more than 100,000 per year and is now running at over 200,000, 98 per cent of them under the poorly defined Clause C, “risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the mother greater than if the pregnancy was terminated”.

Actually, the number of deaths from illegal abortions had been falling for some years, possibly due to the growing demands for greater rights for women, increasing availability of effective contraception, better prenatal care and the advent of the NHS.

The debate has moved on since then with the advent of “medical abortion” and demands for complete decriminalisation, doing away with the need for medical certification and medical supervision. These would further reduce respect for the status of the unborn child and pose more health risks for women.

The pro-choice lobby, backed by the main abortion providers, such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which stand to gain from a loosening of the law, refuse to acknowledge the maternal health risks of abortion and ignore the right to life of the unborn child.

While I am against abortion, I know it would be difficult in the present climate to have it banned completely. For a start I would like to see the time limit reduced, removal of discrimination against Down’s syndrome in the womb, the present law applied more rigorously, more unbiased counselling of distressed pregnant women and more support made available so that they can keep their babies.this would require a sea change in attitudes in society.

(REV DR) DONALD M

MACDONALD Blackford Avenue, Edinburgh