2 JUNE 1967, Page 26

Sir: In Cambridge Granta (April) Dr Goodhart of Gonville and

Caius College writes in an article on abortion that 'the middle-aged mother deserted by her husband and expecting yet another baby should be helped . . . or an undergraduate inadvertently pregnant, with Tripos problems not to be solved by marriage or adoption' (p. 19).

This is abortion for the 'well-being' of the mother, not for her 'health.' Why then does Dr Goodhart (Letters, 26 May) object to having the phrase 'well- being' in the actual Bill, since he takes account of it in these cases? It can hardly increase what he calls 'shopping around' since this is standard prac- tice under the present unreformed law, as every Cambridge undergraduate knows.