LETTERS
Abortion and morality
Sir: Paul Johnson's article on abortion (The media, 23 June) was a courageous attempt to shout through the stifling fug that passes for a 'liberal consensus' nowa- days.
The truth is that the interests of mother and child are one. Attempts to insinuate a way between them and cut them apart in the alleged 'interests' of one, at the ex- pense of the other, should immediately arouse suspicion among those who, like Paul Johnson, have eyes to see and ears to hear. But those who feel no more than mild surprise at the number of 'feminist men' who have popped up lately, and at the sterling support the Government and big bucks are lending the 'feminist cause', may sleep on.
We are all limbs of life, none more so than mother and child. One human being is not protected by destroying another and those who teach otherwise are filling the cup of human suffering to the brim.
In these enlightened times, nobody seems to know where babies come from any more. Certainly, no one gets near a television studio who is likely to blurt out that sexuality and the conception of chil- dren are inseparable. The child is an expensive extra and not requested at the time of purchase, thank you very much. As for the woman, it often happens that within a few months of aborting her baby, the supreme sacrifice was not enough, and she is abandoned too.
We have neither been stout enough to condemn abortion unreservedly nor big- hearted enough to support and cherish those in bad enough trouble to think they want it. The pressure for abortion is a cry for help. If that help is given lovingly and intelligently, the demand for abortion, like the 'demand' for euthanasia, will be exp- osed for the chimera it is.
If children whose mothers lack the means to support them are conceived, they must be brought up, not butchered. That means private, and possibly public, help. One cannot condemn abortion and then drive a destitute mother to suicide or abortion. This is bad faith. Morality costs, and we must think long and hard about its consequences.
Christina Vaccaro
10 The Avenue, Chiswick, London W4
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