Ms Janice Donlon:

We fund 15 services providing crisis pregnancy counselling, two of which, the Deputy is right to state, do not provide, due to their ethos, information on names and addresses of abortion clinics outside Ireland. What they absolutely will provide, however, is information on all three options. If a client attends and wants to discuss the option of abortion, they will discuss it. Also, as the Deputy has seen from their websites, the information is very clearly accessible as to what they will or will not provide. As such, the client is made aware before she attends whether she will be provided with information on abortion services. There is an element of choice for some women of attending a service that is not going to provide the information, or choosing another service. They also have in place, as stated in their service arrangements with the HSE, robust referral procedures so that, if a woman they are counselling seeks information on abortion and wants the names and addresses of clinics, she can be referred to her GP or another service provider.

The counselling services certainly report to us that they will support women through the option of abortion. The ethos of their services does not allow them to provide the names and addresses of the clinics. Women attend crisis pregnancy counselling for a number of reasons and make decisions on their choices around their crisis pregnancies. As our research shows, 73% of women choose to parent and many of these organisations support women through that parenting. Even after the baby is born, they assist them with supports for new mothers. Certainly, there is a role for the services in that regard. Ultimately, the choice is for the woman as to which service she attends. I take the Deputy's point about a rural or an urban spread of counselling services.