Regulations must be brought in around rogue crisis pregnancy agencies in 2018

Labour Party spokesperson on Health Promotion, Martina Genockey, has said the Minister for Health must regulate rogue crisis pregnancy agencies during this Dáil session.

Councillor Genockey said:

“During this Dáil term, it is imperative that the Minister for Health bring in regulations to ensure that rogue crisis pregnancy agencies are no longer able to give dangerous advice to vulnerable women.

“Despite persistent questioning from my Labour colleagues, Brendan Howlin and Jan O’Sullivan, there seems to be no sense of urgency from Government around introducing regulations.

“Over December, we saw some shocking accounts of the way vulnerable, young women were treated when they went to these rogue crisis pregnancy centres in need of what they thought would be professional advice.

“Over a year ago, the Labour Party published a bill to regulate crisis pregnancy counsellors. The Labour Party were given a commitment by Minister Simon Harris that it would be progressed as a matter of urgency. The Bill was scrutinised by the Oireachtas Health committee back in March and we were promised a statutory instrument to deal with the issue in Summer 2017, which never materialised.

“While the debate around repeal of the eighth begins in communities across Ireland, there are women who right now are being lied to in the most grotesque fashion, at a time of exceptional vulnerability. Women in crisis pregnancy situations are being told that abortion increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer, or that women who have had abortions will later abuse or neglect their children.

“This behaviour is an appalling abuse of a position of trust and power, and it must be brought to an end.”