A chara, – I attended the Rally for Choice last Saturday week, and after reading some of the letters from those of the opposite ideology, I feel compelled to respond. It must be stated that there is not a single member of the pro-choice movement I know of who is pro-abortion. We are pro-education, pro-contraception and pro-child benefit (so that no one need ever feel that financial pressures are a reason to terminate a pregnancy). We want Ireland to be a place where no-one, adult or child, suffers unduly and as such, we are pro-choice. We want women to have the choice of safe, legal abortion if the pregnancy is untenable.

I was distressed to see so many young girls at the march for life. Girls who were clearly too young to understand the issue and to realise that this may, sadly, be an option they desperately need in a few short years. I was called “scum”, “fascist” and “murderer” by those on the anti-abortion march. One elderly and evidently disturbed woman told me before the march that pro-choicers “Eat foetuses. They actually eat foetuses.”

If you are opposed to abortion, don’t have one. Educate your children and support them so that they never need one. But do not suppose to tell women who desperately need one that they may not have it. – Is mise,