- Abortion and the law
Sir: Of the 113 MPS who have signed the St John- Stevas rejection motion only twenty-one voted against it on second reading; seven voted for the Bill on second reading and have since changed their minds, and eighty-five did not vote at all! It scarcely becomes MPS who did not trouble to vote on second reading now to parade their virtue by calling for rejection on third reading.
As for the Abortion Law Reform Association, far from being 'rich and professionally organised,' it is both poor and amateur. It has no paid staff whatsoever; it has no office; its 'organisation' is spread over five households, of which mine is one. Five sympathetic husbands give moral sup- port, pay the domestic expenses and tolerate the tap of typewriters far into the night.
ALRA'S success is due to many things (a good case being the most important), but money is not one of them. ALRA has never had more than £4,000 a year in subscriptions and grants (until recently, considerably less) to wage war upon ignorance, bigotry and misrepresentation.
No't does it have the benefit of a regular column in the Catholic Herald, from which Mr St John- Stevas says 'he alerted Catholics to the issue.' Opponents of the Bill must be grateful for that. Douglas Houghton House of Commons, London SW1
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