Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Ruane made an interesting reference to comforting women. Previous generations in this country really ignored women and girls, in particular, who were pregnant, and cast them out from society, isolated and criminalised them to a huge extent. Do the witnesses see the services they provide, in particular counselling, as providing something that is vital and necessary in attendance with pregnancies of a crisis nature, regardless of whether the woman has had an abortion, wants an abortion or goes through with the birth?