In his letter ‘Modern talking’ (January 25), Albert Cilia Vincenti made the following statement: “For the women who use them (MAPs), this is a private matter and the intention is obviously to avoid an unwanted pregnancy not to abort unborn kids.”

In saying so he blithely dismisses the entire issue as a matter of intention alone. The fact of the matter, however, is that there is a world of difference between, on the one hand, intending contraception by use of a system that, to the best of one’s knowledge, is exclusively contraceptive in effect and, on the other hand, by knowingly employing a system that is just as likely to be abortive in effect as it is to be contraceptive. The key word, of course, is ‘knowingly’. It renders the choice a matter of life and death.