RE the article "Big divide on abortion bill: MPs vote 59-31 in favour of legislation" (Leader, August 14).
No one should think that abortion is other than a personal tragedy, but ... no woman is forced to have an abortion, nor does a woman choose to have an abortion lightly.
She may so choose for medical reasons or because, due to circumstances, she is unable, or simply unwilling, to bear the great responsibility of raising a child, and that choice, rightly, should be hers alone.
Those who think that they ought to have a say in what is undoubtedly the most intimate, personal and difficult decision that any woman can ever make, hypocritically exhibit the antithesis of the "freedom of religion" they have when they try to impose their religious beliefs onto everybody else.
They are oblivious to the fact that their "freedom of religion" equally means "freedom from religion" for those that choose not to be governed by such primitive beliefs in particular, freedom from the proscriptions of those extreme ideologues who claim to care so much about the unborn child - but are little concerned about that child after it is born.
"To a nation defined by individual autonomy, the only thing worse than the personal tragedy of abortion is the audacity of the self-ordained to govern when and under what circumstances women have children." Kathleen Parker, Washington Post (2019).
Philip Cohen, Brighton-Le-Sands
