Sir, - Kathryn Holmquist's article on the current status of the morning-after-pill in Ireland (The Irish Times, December 18th) was both timely and welcome.
Ovran is the only option available to Irish prescribers. It is unlicensed for use as emergency hormonal contraception despite being routinely prescribed for such purposes. A safer progesterone-only agent is now readily accessible in the UK. Irish women, however, will be unable to avail of this product because of a flawed interpretation of its mechanism of action that renders it an abortifacient in the judgment of the Irish Medicines Board. One would hope that any future legislation on abortion in this State would clear up this ambiguity and differentiate between post-coital contraception and abortion. If the IMB regards such practice as abortion and therefore unconstitutional, why does it permit the use of Ovran for such purposes? The answer is that it is being used outside of its product licence and therefore not their responsibility. Emergency hormonal contraception is not a grey area; it is not abortion. It is a legitimate method of birth control that Irish prescribers are hindered from using for their patients. The medical and pharmaceutical professions must no longer accept this appalling paradox. - Yours, etc.,
Ronan A. Quirke, MPSI, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.