Ireland's Crisis Pregnancy Agency advertises "masterclass on termination of pregnancy"

Despite the fact that Ireland has a pro-life constitution and that due to the present economic crisis Ireland's Health Services Executive (HSE) have announced major cutbacks including the shutting down of some hospital emergency departments, nevertheless the Crisis Pregnancy Agency within the HSE, have allocated funding for the holding of so called "masterclasses for supporting unplanned pregnancy" commencing with a class that declares termination of pregnancy to be a lawful choice

Masterclass 1 Termination of pregnancy: A lawful choice 
16th September 2011; 10.00am – 4.30pm

This outrageous programme will apparently consist of a presentation given by Sherie de Burgh of "One Family" who was formerly employed by the Irish Family Planning Association IFPA which is an affiliate of IPPF the largest abortion provider in the world.  The programme was organised by the HSE in conjunction with the Department of Adult and Community Education, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

The aim of these Masterclasses according to the CPA website,

is to create an opportunity for professionals to gain more in-depth knowledge and skills to assist them in managing the challenges that present around unplanned pregnancy.

The website also claims that, 

The masterclasses further support the work of the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme in the area of quality and standards development in the broad field of supporting clients with unplanned pregnancy.

This is a travesty that must be challenged immediately. Objections should be made to the Taoiseach Enda Kenny the Health Minister James Reilly and to the HSE

Crisis Pregnancy Agency 2008 report

The publication of the CPA’s annual report for 2008 (Irish Times July 21st) shows a continued decrease in the number of women travelling to Britain for abortions.

Whilst it is good to see the numbers of Irish women seeking abortion in the UK falling this has little to do with the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) which has consistently portrayed abortion as a positive option and continues to fund agencies that that are affiliated to and financially supported by, international abortion providers, that claim their counselling is non directive but at the same time provide information on foreign abortion clinics.

The drop in the numbers of women seeking abortion is due rather to the excellent and highly professional services of pro-life agencies. Clearly the CPA focus on reducing the number of so called “crisis pregnancies” is not the same as that of agencies that seek to protect the life and health of both mother and baby by giving women comprehensive information, denied to them by pro-abortion agencies, such as the possible physical and mental effects of abortion.

Ever since it was set up in 2001 we have called for the CPA to be wound up and now finally it appears that this will happen, the press conference noted that the agency will cease to exist and its mandate will be subsumed into the Health Services Executive (HSE). It is to be hoped that this change will bring about the badly needed reform of the agency

Rogue Agencies
The CPA also announced a billboard campaign against what they describe as “rogue agencies”. The campaign against agencies not under the umbrella of the CPA was initiated by pro-abortion counselling agencies and supported by the media. Abortion is illegal in Ireland and pro-abortion agencies deplore the success of pro-life agencies that dont provide information on foreign abortion clinics. Whilst it is not surprising that the CPA would support this viewpoint it is particularly disappointing that Irish Health Minister Mary Harney has taken the pro-abortion side.

Philomena Buckley of Neart when asked for her views on the issue said,

“Surely if an agency is assisting in saving the lives of babies by giving mothers to be, proper information and at the same time reducing the demand for abortion this is something the CPA and the Minister should welcome, unless of course there is another agenda".

Who are the real rogue agencies?
• The real rogue agencies are those that are affiliated to, and/or financially
supported by international abortion providers.
• The real rogue agencies are those that do not accept the right to life of innocent unborn children
• The real rogue agencies are those that fail to advise women of the possible physical and mental effects of abortion but nevertheless claim their counselling is non directive.
• The real rogue agencies are those that ignore the wishes of the vast majority of the Irish people and Ireland’s constitutional prohibition on abortion.

Ireland's Crisis Pregnancy Agency: Part of the Problem not the Solution

Ireland’s Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) was set up to reduce the numbers of crisis pregnancies in Ireland. This agency lists thirteen organisations under what it describes as its “positive options” campaign two of which are pro-life agencies. The remainder all offer to provide information on abortion services which far from being a positive option is to most negative option possible. The CPA in 2007 set out a 4 year strategy to lead to an “integrated approach to reducing crisis pregnancy”. European Life Network will over the coming weeks consider different aspects of the CPA and its remit.

This week we focus on the CPA Think Contraception Website which claims to be “a practical guide to reproductive health” with the promise that “each method is presented in a clear and simple format.” The format is certainly simple and instructions such as ‘get comfortable with condoms’ is clear enough. However, a brief look at the information provided about some methods made me wonder precisely how this site is supposed to educate anyone. For example, the section on Natural Methods is clearly out of date. It gives very little actual information about the different kinds of Natural Family Planning available and falsely claims that it is ‘only suitable for women with regular menstrual cycles.’ Whilst this may be true of some methods, Billings Ovulation Method and the Sympto-thermal Method (to name just two) can be used by women with both regular and irregular cycles. Likewise the commentary on, “lack of knowledge and events which they say can disturb the woman’s cycle make the method less reliable” is a false generalisation. Most modern methods of Natural Family Planning make allowances for disturbances in a woman’s cycle and will in fact alert the woman to potential problems. For example, if a woman is not ovulating regularly, this will become apparent.

The section on abstinence is more honest, pointing out that it is “the most effective way of preventing pregnancy, STIs and HIV” though why “requires good communication” is listed as a drawback is a little puzzling. It is also hard to understand, given this admission, why the approach the CPA is making towards the education of young people is based on systems that have already failed in other countries.

Then there is the whole section on ‘emergency contraception’ which falsely claims it "does not cause abortion" because, it is claimed "abortion can only take place after a fertilised egg has implanted in the womb". This ignores the fact that a new human life with its own DNA exists from the moment of fertilisation and that this new life can be terminated by so called emergency contraception. It concedes however that "people who believe that life begins when the egg is fertilised may not wish to use this method." The basic message seems to be: ‘the morning after pill is fine, it isn’t an abortifacient, but if you have this irrational idea that it might be, don’t take it.’

The other major problem with this approach to contraception is that it gives the impression that contraception is more reliable than it is in practice, by using theoretical failure rates rather than the more realistic user failure rate that many of these methods have. The effectiveness of individual methods will be stated on the site as very high, typically over 90% with the qualification of ‘with very careful use’, ‘higher failure rate with less careful use’ and ‘with careful and consistent use’. Whereas the Fertility Awareness section can’t emphasise enough the fallibility of natural methods (unfairly in some places), the fact that no method of contraception is 100% reliable goes - as ever - almost unnoticed.