13 JUNE 1992, Page 23

Sir: You are quite right in your editorial ('Full of

Cantuar', 23 May). All populations know how to limit family size. They are par- ticularly successful in South America, where more than half of all conceptions overall end in induced abortions, a very effective, if unpleasant and dangerous, method of limiting births. But this was how most British women, outside a small middle class group, controlled their fertility until the mid-Sixties. Birth-rates were lower in Britain in 1932 than they are now in 1992, which is a sobering thought. So long as the motive is there, abortion will always take up the slack left by inadequate contraception — as even the Irish are now discovering.

C.L. Orde Johnson

42 Belsize Park, London NW3