IN YOUR interesting interview with David Alton (October 23),, he is quoted as saying that his abortion bill will make him "more enemies than friends". From my observation, I fear he may be correct and that this unpopularity will spill over in the Catholic community generally.
The reason for this is that after 20 years campaigning on this issue, the anti-abortion pressure groups have had no effect on the numbers of abortions carried out. We have not managed to convince many women in the child-bearing age groups of the rightness of our views.
Having failed to convince them by the strength of our argument, so I am often told by non-Catholic friends and colleagues, we are now resorting the brute force of the law to bludgeon where we cannot persuade. Is there a really honest and convincing answer to this?
Teresa Connors London, NW II ONE thing is rapidly becoming clear with the first shots on the Alton bill — the extent to which those who should be right behind the battle against abortion even sponsors of the bill — are preparing to yield the pass before the battle proper has even begun.
It must be proclaimed here and now that nobody in the pro-life movement is interested in 24 weeks (or 22!). That is still throwing away babies alive and kicking.
Even 18 weeks, on David Alton's own admission, would reduce the actual number of abortions hardly at all, and still concedes no principle worth achieving. Better than nothing is all that can be said about it.
As for Frank Field's "open letter" (October 23), that merits no more than a cynical laugh where has he been? Proabortionists will fight every inch of the way against any bill for less than 24 weeks, and are flatly not interested in fairness, neutral counselling or anything else.
J T Miller