Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Donlon for her presentation. We are discussing socioeconomic status and disadvantage in the context of women and the choices they make. Looking at the Positive Options website and the clinics that provide counselling services - which the HSE funds - I counted 32 or 33 locations but Ms Donlon says it is 40 and I accept that. I did not look at the geographical spread in respect of them but I want to make a point about access to full information for all women across all centres in Ireland. Outside of the urban centres, it might be more difficult for women to access a crisis pregnancy counselling service. Would Ms Donlon comment on that? It makes it more difficult and therefore the question of socioeconomic and economic disadvantage applies very much more for people who are not near an urban centre where they have choices in the type of counselling received.

My second question is on the list of agencies under Positive Options, approximately one third of which are run by Anew and Cura. On their websites, both organisations state that they do not provide contact details for abortion clinics or abortion information services, but they will discuss. It was stated here that the legal framework for providing information on abortion requires that individuals must be given access to the information. If the only resource available to a poor woman is provided by Anew or Cura, which will not discuss abortion, why are they funded by the crisis pregnancy programme to provide one third of counselling services while failing to give women full access to all of the options they have? Does it not further disadvantage women who are socially and economically in a bottom bracket? While Anew or Cura will not provide the information women need on abortion, they will provide the name of a doctor or other service they can attend. Does it not compound their disadvantage and possibly even the delay in procuring an abortion? Women need and want to have access to abortion as early as possible but this seems to be an anomaly. Why does a State agency such as the crisis pregnancy programme fund services which will not provide the full information to women? They state on their website that they will discuss but not provide the information.