Choice Ireland held a protest outside the "Women's Resource Centre" - rogue crisis pregnancy counselling agency - 50 Upper Dorset St., Dublin 1, last Saturday 18th August.Link with more pictures from the protest: http://indymedia.ie/article/83840
Press Release: Saturday 18th August 2007
Choice Ireland calls for regulation of crisis pregnancy counselling agencies.
As part of their ongoing campaign to highlight the issue of rogue crisis pregnancy counselling agencies, Choice Ireland has made a submission to the Law Reform Commission and will protest outside the Women's Resource Centre on Saturday, 18 th August 2007. Rogue crisis pregnancy counselling agencies advertise themselves as providers of legitimate pregnancy counselling services but they are known to use manipulative tactics, provide misleading information and intimidate women. The sole purpose of these agencies is to stop women from travelling outside the State to terminate a pregnancy.
Commenting Niav Keating said:
"Rogue crisis pregnancy agencies deliberately mislead women about the health risks associated with abortion. When Choice Ireland activists attended this agency, they were told that having an abortion would increase their risk of developing breast cancer, becoming an alcoholic and abusing children. These are blatant lies designed to scare vulnerable women in a crisis pregnancy situation".
Commenting Sinead Ahearn said:
"At present, counselling services in Ireland are not regulated which means that any individual or group can establish a counselling service and this is an outrageous situation. We are calling on the government to bring forward statutory regulation for all pregnancy counselling services, prescribing minimum codes of practices and standards, to ensure that they do not impart misleading and incorrect information".
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