Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree. It should provide that no under-age person should be forced into marriage against his or her will.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the House hold a 45 minute debate with the Minister for Health and Children following Second Stage of the Health (Amendment) Bill on a specific issue affecting women's lives and health. I raised this issue in the context of the so-called protection of life in pregnancy Bill. It was exposed a number of months ago when there was an investigation into a HSE crisis pregnancy programme and funded counselling services.

The investigation revealed extremely irregular practices carried out by State-funded pregnancy counselling agencies. It specifically involved the Irish Family Planning Association and others and included, for example, the falsification of medical reporting on five occasions. On five occasions, the investigations found women were told to hide their abortions from their doctors. They were encouraged to lie and to tell the doctors, if they had complications after an abortion, that they had a miscarriage. That was one example of a life-threatening endangerment of women by State-funded pregnancy counselling agencies. The Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Dr. Sam Coulter-Smith, spoke to the Irish Independentabout the dangers of giving such advice to women. In two Irish Family Planning Association clinics, women were told how to purchase and import an illegal abortion pill.