My father was born in a Dublin orphanage in 1935, where he spent the first three years of his life, before being adopted by Irish Catholics in Yorkshire. Later in life, by writing to the orphanage, he met his biological mother. From what she said of his conception, it is reasonable to suppose that, had abortion been legal and normal in Ireland then, he might not have been born. After his death five years ago, I found a letter he had written in 1967 to The Guardian following the vote in parliament that made abortion legal: “You are depriving the right to existence of an immortal soul, a future citizen of heaven.” On the same basis, he had also upheld the Church’s position on contraception. The letter had been returned unpublished with a polite note explaining that the debate was now over.

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