Cathie Shiels looks at the decade-long failure to regulate bogus counselling services.
Rogue Crisis Pregnancy Agencies are crisis pregnancy advice services that mislead their clients about abortion services to try and prevent them from seeking terminations. The effect is to confuse desperate women about their options and they have undoubtedly prevented women from accessing abortion in a timely manner or possibly until it was too late altogether. Women in Ireland already have abortions later than their English counterparts due to the need to leave the State and pay privately for terminations.
The Regulation of Information Act 1995 established the right to information about abortion services abroad, but details can only be given in the context of a face-to-face counselling session and only in conjunction with comprehensive information about both parenting and adopting – known as three option counselling. The rogue clinics only provide information on parenting and adoption, while implying in their advertising that they provide information on all three options. Many rogue agencies are affiliated to or connected with religious organisations, but don’t disclose this in their advertising. They lie to women about the reality of abortion, telling them the procedures are lifethreatening and will result in long term physical and psychological damage.
We were all sickened and appalled by the false information, misleading nonsense and offensive things that have been told to women and people in vulnerable situations
Over the years numerous protests have taken place outside rogue agencies to highlight their dodgy practices and to educate the public and policy-makers on the dangers of allowing these agencies to operate. In 2007, Choice Ireland were picketing outside a rogue agency on Dorset Street named the “Women’s Resource Centre”, an obvious attempt to mislead abortion seekers. In 2010 an activist posing as a pregnant client was told that if she had an abortion she would ‘most certainly need a hysterectomy”, “end up with infections and infertility”, and “become promiscuous or frigid”.
Almost a decade later, in September 2016, reporters for The Times recorded a consultation in a north-inner city agency where a staff member advised a client that abortion can turn women into child abusers in later life. Despite four years in government, Labour waited until they were in opposition to introduce The Health and Social Care Professionals (Amendment) Bill 2016 last October. At the time politicians and the media talked about the urgency of the addressing this issue. The Taoiseach (then Minister for Social Protection) Leo Varadkar said “It’s very important that all counselling and psychotherapy be regulated. It’s not just about abortion clinics, it’s about all forms of counselling. As things stand, almost anyone can say that they are a counsellor”. As Varadkar pointed out, many rogue agencies portray themselves as medical clinics, and advertise medical services such as ‘options counselling’, but they don’t provide full options counselling and do not refer for abortion care or even contraception. Most rogue agency volunteers who work directly with women are not counsellors or care professionals.
In February 2017, the Minister for Health, Simon Harris said: “We were all sickened and appalled by the false information, misleading nonsense and offensive things that have been told to women and people in vulnerable situations, I am very determined that we’re going to address this by regulation”. This was an advance from Mary Harney’s stance in 2006 that there will always be people involved in giving inappropriate advice. You cannot legislate against that”. Harris’ shock and disbelief might be because he was 19 in 2006, but none of this information is new. Neither is the Government’s response – to do nothing.
Since 2006 though, there has been a massive change in public attitudes towards sexual and reproductive health rights demonstrated clearly by opinion polls; a surge in membership in a multitude of pro-choice organisations; participation in the March for Choice – which grew to 20,000 in 2016; and the unexpectedly liberal recommendations that came from the Citizens’ Assembly.
In a country where abortion is legal, the ridiculous loopholes which the agencies operate in, and exploit women through will be closed – they will no longer operate in a climate where women are isolated and afraid.
