Vol. 519 No. 6
87 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Health and Children if he intends to make family planning services available, free of charge, to all women, as recommended in the Government commissioned report, Women and Crisis Pregnancies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14542/00]
Family planning services are available free of charge to medical card holders. I have no plans at present to extend this arrangement to non-medical card holders.
When the "Women and Crisis Pregnancies" report was published in 1998, the view of my predecessor as Minister was that it would not have been appropriate to publish a major report containing recommendations while the consultation process leading to the preparation of the Green Paper on Abortion was under way. The report as published did not, therefore, contain recommendations but rather findings and conclusions, based on the research undertaken.
