Abortion legacy
Sir: How interesting was Alexandra Artley's article CA foundling father to our children', 21 October) on Thomas Coram's 18th century response to 'babies and young children, some dead and others dying, put out on dung heaps at the side of the roads'. He founded the Foundling Hospital. (My apologies for such a delayed' reaction, caused by being away).
How different is this century's (pur- ported) response to the very much more
LETTERS
minor problem of a few deaths a year from septic abortion. The response, the Steel Abortion Act of 1967, a veritable sledge- hammer to crack a mustard seed, of course has the side effect of allowing a pregnant woman access to an official service to get rid of the inconvenient baby, thereby avoiding the distasteful necessity of re- course to a dungheap. Is there any connection between the facts that it is 22 years since the Abortion Act, and that the country now suffers an unprecedented shortage of people under 21?
Christopher Heneghan
14 Woodberry Avenue, North Harrow, Middlesex
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