More than one approach to the dilemma of women and

abortion ALTHOUGH I agree with most of what Fr McKevitt has to say (May 4) about pro-life action, he is a bit unfair to the Life organisation which has been aware for some time of the suffering of women who have had an abortion. Most Life offices now offer post abortion counselling and we do give these women hope. Even the local abortion clinic sends us clients.
On a regular basis we have been praying outside our local abortion clinic for about 18 months and recently one of the nurses contacted us and said that the staff had been very moved by our witness and she knew of at least two women who had kept their babies as a result.
She herself left the clinic and has gone back to her church. It is a pity prayer is neglected by the pro-life movement. I have been involved a long time and have never been to a meeting that began with a prayer.
Mary Miller Leeds
I FEEL I must respond to one point made by Fr Brian McKevitt. He states that the Pro-Life Movement "neglects the suffering of post-aboi-tion women". Nothing could be further from the truth. The
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children's Educational Research Trust set up, and funded, British Victims of Abortion, an organisation that has a 24-hour help line.
In the United Kingdom, for women suffering as a result of abortion, British Victims of Abortion has helped thousands of women since it was founded three years ago — compassionate help that is free to whoever wishes to contact us.
I and colleagues have travelled the length and breadth of this country and made numerous trips to Northern Ireland, speaking to public meetings and pro-life groups informing them of the severe consequences abortion holds for the mother.
I have been shown nothing but compassion and kindness from the vast majority of prolifers. The Pro-Life Movement does care for the mother. Only the Pro-Life Movement was there when we needed them most.
Bernadette Thompson Co-ordinator British Victims of Abortion "TWENTY years of pro-life political work has achieved virtually nothing in Britain" writes Fr McKevitt OP. "Perhaps it is time for a radical rethink about pro-life activity."
am sure he is right. But I am equally sure that the solution he advocates — more direct action and the picketing of hospitals and clinics where abortions take place — would be as disastrous and unpersuasive in this country as it has proved in the United States.
Pro-life policies have failed to convince because they have failed to convince the ordinary man and woman in the street (including many Catholics) that the early embryo or foetus is indeed "a baby" or "a human person". The trouble is that to think of the foetus in this way runs against so much ordinary human experience and practices.
It is well-known that about a third of normal pregnancies end in "spontaneous abortion" or miscarriages. So very many women, including those in Catholic congregations, (perhaps as many as one in five) have the experience of losing an early foetus at three months or less.
This loss is rarely if ever treated by society, parish, friends or doctors as the death of a person or the loss of a baby. Instead the mother is routinely instructed to flush the remains down the lavatory.
This happened to me many times. Occasionally, as a devout Catholic, I would ask a priest about the possibility of conditional baptism or burial of the aborted foetus, only to be met with barely concealed embarrassment or disgust and the advice to follow the doctors orders.
It is very hard for ordinary women (or their husbands and friends) who live through this, after all, very common experience, to believe that the many aborted foetuses they have flushed away were indeed "human persons" — immortal souls whom they will meet in heaven.
If the pro-life movement wants to change this mass social perception their first step must be to use the Catholic parishes and congregations to deal more seriously with the many foetuses aborted through natural causes. Women should be instructed to bury them with reverence. Priests should be instructed to accept them for funeral services (as far as I know this is never done).
Mary Tuck London W11 THERE is much in Fr McKevites letter which many pro-lifers will find offensive. The argument for direct action can be sustained without insulting efforts in other directions. It may well be true that 20 years of pro-life political work has achieved virtually nothing in Britain, but that is riot to say that other pro-life initiatives have been similarly ineffective.
Perhaps charity should presume that Fr McKevitt does not know about Life's Pregnancy Care Service which is active in over 100 centres throughout the British Isles. This work of dedicated volunteers makes sure that alternatives to abortion are available for women in difficult circumstances and provides a comprehensive network of counsellors dealing with postabortion trauma.
This work has saved untold thousands of lives and helped to repair many damaged and threatened spirits. It has also changed many minds about abortion. Fr McKevitt is quite wrong to accuse us of neglecting the mothers and being "unconcerned" about them. Over 80,000 women come to Life every year for help.
Fr Peter McGuire Chairman Sheffield Life Group