Dr. Rhona Mahony:

The Senator asked a good question on what else we can do for young and vulnerable women in society. We must start at the beginning. If we are going to equip young men and women for adulthood then we really need to provide them with good sex education. This should begin in school and continue throughout their lives. Sometimes the programmes in our schools can be quite limited, however. It is not just a matter of learning the biology of how a woman gets pregnant but also all of the other issues surrounding that, such as alcohol and drug use, for example. That is very important. It is also important that we have supports there for young women who do find themselves pregnant. There needs to be good support and good counselling and they need to be able to get access to care. In our hospitals, for example, we have adolescent clinics in order that young girls can, first of all, meet one other, and second, not go through a system with much older women causing them to feel even more excluded. Nor is this just a matter for women. We also need to equip men to deal with human sexuality. I think Senator Buttimer has asked a great question and that as a society, we need to work really hard with young boys and girls in order that they can have respectful, healthy and responsible intimate relationships. This means that if people do not want to get pregnant in the first place they do not become pregnant, and that if they eventually do become pregnant they are healthy and able to deal with the pregnancy. I think that there is a lot more that we can do in this area.