People in NI should get an abortion referendum too, if they so wish

It is a ridiculous situation we have reached, when a doctor has to put legal considerations ahead of clinical decisions.

It is time we got real. Why should I, a 71-year-old male, any priest, any lawyer, any politician, have the right to tell a woman what to do with her body.

If we really want a definitive answer to the problem, let us have a referendum of women of child bearing age only.

Successive Irish governments have been kicking this can down the road for years because they don’t know what they are doing.

It has nothing to do with politicians, lawyers, or the clergy, it is strictly a matter between a doctor and patient ONLY.

Ladies in the North have the same problem as their counterparts in the South had before the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, they have to leave their home shores to get treatment elsewhere.

Having to do this means that they have been dismally let down by their politicians.

I am sure the experience of having an abortion will cause a lot of these ladies to suffer post traumatic stress disorder, are they being properly looked after on their return.

We are now in the 21st century and it is time our politicians woke up to that fact, we are no longer in the middle ages.

The people in the South voted two to one to repeal the Eighth Amendment, and the people in the North should be given the opportunity to do the same, if they so wish, sooner rather than later, in a referendum.

Referendums should only be held on Saturdays to allow students and people who work away from home, to return to vote.

John Fair, Castlebar, Co Mayo