IMO agm vote was regrettable

Women owe Drs Mary Favier and Mark Murphy a vote of thanks for trying to drag the Irish Medical Organisation into the 21st century.

It is shocking that the motions that these two doctors put to the agm were defeated. The very limited motions addressed women’s existing constitutional right to life, abortion in cases of rape and incest and fatal foetal abnormality.

Your report ‘Doctors refuse to back X case motion’ (Saturday, Apr 6) raises so many issues. Not least, whether IMO members who voted against the motions know that women who meet the X case test already have a right to an abortion in this country, including those whose lives are at risk from suicide, and that this right was endorsed in referenda in 1992 and 2001.