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Crisis Pregnancies.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 May 2005

Tuesday, 10 May 2005

Ceisteanna (82)

Gay Mitchell

Ceist:

129 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she will consider the concerns of a group (details supplied) in relation to a publication. [14855/05]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

The manner in which persons or agencies provide information about pregnancy termination services outside the State is regulated by the Regulation of Information (Services Outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies) Act 1995. This Act permits a doctor or advice agency to provide abortion information to pregnant women — in the context of full counselling — as to all available options and without any advocacy of abortion. There are no plans to amend this legislation to oblige crisis pregnancy counsellors to provide the information suggested by the group concerned.

The Crisis Pregnancy Agency, CPA, has informed my Department that it has recently issued guidelines to agencies about the provision of abortion information. These guidelines are primarily based on two principles that the information is truthful and objective, in line with the statutory provisions of the Regulation of Information (Services Outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies) Act 1995 and that information provided is guided by sound scientific evidence. In line with these principles, the CPA advises all agencies providing information on options available to women with crisis pregnancies, including abortion, to rely on peer-reviewed sources of research. Thus, the agency has found the guide produced by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on information for women seeking abortions particularly useful for this purpose. This is available on the website www.rcog.org.uk.

The agency launched its strategy to address crisis pregnancy in late 2003. The CPA acknowledges in this document that crisis pregnancy counselling has the potential to provide women with standardised information on supports available to them. The agency aims to review the type of information available to women in crisis pregnancy counselling through this strategy in order to set and maintain high standards; it is already compiling a manual of best practice for crisis pregnancy counselling that will set a standard for crisis pregnancy counsellors in Ireland.

The CPA's strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy emphasises reducing the number of crisis pregnancies — and hence abortions — through the consistent and correct use of effective methods of contraception. In line with this and its statutory mandate, the agency is engaged in the drafting of a contraceptive framework that will advise on options for the further development of contraceptive services.

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