Abortion choice is long overdue

SIR, —  When the Irish electorate voted by a landslide in May 2018 to repeal the constitutional prohibition on abortion, it was a long overdue recognition that women can be trusted to make decisions about their pregnancy in the context of their own lives. 

When abortion is decriminalised on October 21, anyone who is pregnant in Northern Ireland will finally have the right to make their own decisions at home and with the support of their healthcare service.

If someone in Northern Ireland does not want to have an abortion, they are already free to make that decision for themselves.

If a doctor in Northern Ireland does not want to carry out an abortion, they are already free to follow the General Medical Council guidance on conscientious objection to a particular procedure.

But these people opposed to abortion as part of the healthcare service are also demanding the right to be free to impose their beliefs on everyone else.  

They demand to be free to perpetuate the hypocrisy of exporting women from Northern Ireland to other jurisdictions and forcing people to take medication without medical support, in secrecy and fear of criminal prosecution.

It is time for the hypocrisy to stop. For the secret journeys, shrouded in stigma and shame, to stop.

Yours etc,

BREDA CORISH,

London N16.