Pro-lifers must use their strength in numbers

From Mr Tony Bond SIR — As you report (May 19), Ted Atkinson was imprisoned for upsetting staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Norfolk, by sending them abortion pictures. He has lost his freedom and entitlement to NHS treatment for holding up a mirror to a society in denial, forcing it to see the disturbing results of its darkest deeds.
I hope that this will not intimidate other pro-lifers into abandoning an effective means of showing the reality of abortion: our democratic right to do so was re-asserted by Fiona Pinto and James Biddulph, arrested for displaying abortion images, but subsequently acquitted.
Similarly, Lord Justice Laws acknowledged in the Court of Appeal that "the image is the message" in relation to the Prolife Alliance's bid for a party political broadcast containing images of abortions. Channel 4's documentary featuring an abortion also showed that this reality can be graphically aired in public. Brave people like Mr Atkinson can be picked off individually, but there is strength in numbers: his sacrifice will not be in vain if it galvanises pro-life organisations into action to reassert our right to show — particularly to those directly involved in it — the reality of abortion.
For example, thousands of voters sending the acting head of the NHS, Sir Ian Carruthers, and every hospital in the country images of abortion would be unlikely to be dealt with as summarily as Mr Atkinson on the basis of arguable legal criteria and the issue of abortion may finally be forced on to the political agenda.
Also, now that the European Court has ruled that the NHS must pay for treatment obtained elsewhere in the EU if unavailable in reasonable time in Britain, quite possibly, neither Mr Atkinson nor anyone else refused treatment in British hospitals for confronting them with the reality of their work need be too concerned.
Yours faithfully, TONY BOND Kesgrave, Suffolk