Human Rights Watch Report

Human Rights Watch are this year mounting a major inquiry into how women's human rights are being violated by the current legal situation regarding access to abortion in Ireland.

The following email is a request for women to share their personal experiences with HRW (in absolute confidentiality) for their report. Please pass it along to anyone you think might be able to help.

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Human Rights Watch are doing a country report on Ireland on the harm that the ban on abortion does to Irish women. I along with Marianne Mollmann will be in Ireland from August 25th-29th doing fieldwork. I am also available in London to do phone interviews and background research from August 20th. I have already done fieldwork in the UK with abortion service providers on the experience of Irish women travelling to Britain to obtain an abortion.

If you might be in a position to help Human Rights Watch with this ground breaking report, you can contact me by phone at the number below from August 20th or email hrwireland@gmail. com

We are particularly interested in interviewing women who have had to travel to obtain an abortion. Confidentiality and anonymity are guaranteed to all women who may wish to be interviewed. During the week of 25 August, our priority will be to interview women about their experiences – and would ideally like to interview the following categories of women:

• Women with fetal abnormalities pregnancies
• Adolescents
• Rape survivors
• Immigrant women
• Traveller women

We are also interested in interviewing any woman who has had to travel for an abortion on their experiences. We would also like to be able to access any women who were not able to travel and who therefore continued with the pregnancies? I am not sure how easy it would be access this group and whether they would be willing to talk to us?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Liesl Gerntholtz.

Liesl Gerntholtz

Director, Women's Rights Division

Human Rights Watch

2-12 Pentonville Road

London N1 9HP

United Kingdom

+44 (0)207 713 1995 (general)

+44 (0)207 713 2796 (direct line)

Rogue agency forced to change name

Rogue crisis pregnancy agency the "Women's Resource Centre" has been forced to change its name following a sustained campaign by Choice Ireland.

It has emerged that the rogue crisis pregnancy agency the "Women's Resource Centre" has taken out full-page ads in the new issue of the Golden Pages under the new name "Abbey Counselling Centre". The agency, previously known as "Alpha" and "British Alternatives Pregnancy Service", has been forced to change its name several times following exposures of unethical activity, provision of false medical information and intimidation of women seeking information on abortion services. The agency, then known as the "Aadams Agency", was also named at the centre of an illegal adoption scandal in 1999.

The change in name comes in the wake of a one-month series of demonstrations mounted by Choice Ireland highlighting the activities of the agency, which operates from its base on 50 Upper Dorset Street. The agency also operates a number of "outreach" centres from private homes around Ireland.

Commenting, spokesperson Niav Keating said, "The Abbey Counselling Centre is a new cover; however, the number advertised is that of the Women's Resource Centre. While we can work to expose this agency and its practices each time they reinvent themselves, it is clear that regulations need to be set down to ensure that crisis pregnancy counselling is carried out in an ethical, honest and compassionate way."

In a further comment, spokesperson Sinead Ahern added, "We hope that our upcoming hearing with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health will further the development of legislation governing the operation of crisis pregnancy agencies. This would close the legal loophole which allows these agencies to traumatise women facing a crisis pregnancy."

This evidence of the continued operation of these "rogue" crisis pregnancy agencies closely follows the recent publication of the Commission on Patient Safety report recommending a licensing system for all healthcare providers. Minister for Health Mary Harney has failed to address the issue of rogue crisis pregnancy agencies.

Photos from Saturday 16 July outside WRC

On Saturday, around 50 people gathered outside the WRC to show their support for the ongoing campaign to shut this agency down, and to regulate for all crisis pregnancy counselling. Thanks to all who came along, and to Bríd and Andrew for photos.

Choice Ireland Calls on all Organisations and Individuals to Join the Big Demo Against the WRC

Choice Ireland is finishing a month of action against the rogue pregnancy counselling agency the WRC this Saturday. Choice Ireland has undertaken this month of action to raise local awareness about the operation of the clinic in the area and to generate support for our upcoming Oireachtas hearing where we will argue that legislation should be introduced to shut down rogue agencies. Choice Ireland therefore asks all like minded organisations to come and show their support for our campaign to shut down the WRC this Saturday at 1pm at number 50 Upper Dorset Street. Bring your banners and flags!

More info below.

Month of Action against Rogue Agency

Choice Ireland believes that vulnerable women in crisis pregnancies deserve help and support in coming to terms with the difficult choices they face in their situation – not the lies, bullying, and manipulation of the WRC. For this reason we are campaigning to have this rogue agency shut down and as part of this campaign we will be maintaining a presence outside it every Saturday this month of July. So starting this Saturday at 1pm we will be protesting outside the WRC. This protest raises awareness about the WRC's activities and prevents them from traumatising more women for as long as we are there. Choice Ireland is preparing for an oireachtas committee meeting to have rogues agencies like this regulated and we will be collecting signatures for a petition to support this. We hope that you can offer us your support and help spread the word about what is going on. If you can't make it this Saturday then come along next Saturday or make a special effort to get to our big demo on Saturday the 26th of July.

Some Background information:

A rogue agency is a fraudulent pregnancy counselling service set up with the sole aim of taking advantage of the vulnerability of women experiencing a crisis pregnancy in order to bully them out of considering the possibility of abortion.

The WRC is located at number 50 on Upper Dorset Street. The sign above the door reads “WRC” but this rogue agency has many aliases. It was known as “Aadams” from 1995 until 1999 when that incarnation was shut down in the midst of an illegal adoption scandal. It reopened as the “Women's Counselling Network” and was more recently calling itself “Alpha” until a Newstalk exposé led it to change its name once more to the “WRC”. This agency is also known to misleadingly advertise in the yellow pages as “British Alternative Pregnancy Services” and “Choice for Women” in order to give the false impression that they will discuss all the options available to women in crisis pregnancy when they have no intention of doing so.

The agency uses many names because it has a lot to hide. This agency specialises in traumatising vulnerable women. They give medically incorrect information to women about abortion, stating that abortion causes breast cancer, child abuse, depression, fridgitity, promiscuity and infertility. They also have told women that have been raped that it is impossible to become pregnant from rape. None of this is true and the only reason they tell women these lies is to try to impede their abilitiy to make an informed decision. They have also been known to breach the confidentiality of people seeking counselling – informing family members without consent that a woman is pregnant and may be considering an abortion, giving a woman's contact details to priests, and posing as a boyfriend to try and persuade a clinic to cancel an appointment for abortion.

The agency promises women that they will be given contact details for abortion clinics in England as soon as they have had an unnecessary and expensive ultrasound at a private clinic that may take several weeks to procure. When the woman returns with her ultrasound scans the clinic then uses the images to try and talk her out of her decision once more. The reason they engage in such a tactic is to try and cause a woman additional delay and expense in the hope that this will prevent her from being able to procure an abortion.

Related Link: http://choiceireland.blogspot.com/

Choice Ireland calls on Government to stop criminalising women who have abortions

Following the inquest into a backstreet abortion procured by a Filipino woman in July 2004, Choice Ireland are tonight calling on the Government to
address the issue of abortion rights for women in Ireland. A woman
can be jailed for life if she has an abortion in Ireland, but, if she
can afford to travel, she can avail of a termination outside the
State.

Commenting spokesperson Niav Keating said "In 2004, the government
ruled out any review of current abortion legislation despite media
coverage of two illegal back-street abortions that had taken place in
Dublin that summer. In April 2008, the Council of Europe called on
Ireland to decriminalise abortion and warned that Ireland's abortion
ban does not result in fewer abortions but instead means women have no
choice but to undergo traumatic backstreet abortions."

Commenting spokesperson Sinead Ahearn said "It's time for the
government to stop ignoring the plight of women who cannot travel
outside this State to procure a termination. It's time for free, safe
and legal abortion services to be introduced in Ireland"

Quotes End.

Notes

Back street abortions are not a new phenomenon in Ireland and between
1926 and 1974 there were at least 58 recorded prosecutions under the
1861 Offences against the Persons Act. However, since the 1967
Abortion Act in Britain, back street abortion had ceased to be a major
problem in Ireland as many Irish women travelled to the UK to
terminate a pregnancy. Since 1967, 5 women are known to have died
from back street abortions in Northern Ireland.

A report published in the medical journal, The Lancet, last year
concluded that there is little difference in abortion rate worldwide
regardless of whether the procedure is legal or illegal. The report
referred to is "Induced abortion: estimated rates and trends
worldwide" by Gilda Sedgh, Stanley Henshaw, Susheela Singh, Elizabeth
Ahman and Iqbal H. Shah. It is published in the current issue of 'The
Lancet' (Volume 370, Number 9595). It can be accessed online
www.thelancet.com

Choice Ireland is a diverse group of Pro-Choice activists campaigning
for free, safe and legal abortion services in Ireland.

Choice Ireland welcomes UK Parliament's vote to maintain 24 week time limit on abortion.

Pro-choice activists, Choice Ireland, have tonight welcomed the UK Parliament's decision to maintain the 24 week time limit on abortion. Efforts to reduce the upper time limits for abortions have been overwhelmingly rejected by MPs.

Several peer reviewed studies have demonstrated that survival rates below 24 weeks gestation have not changed since 1990 when the abortion legislation in the UK was last reviewed.

Commenting spokesperson Sinead Ahern says "only a very small proportion of terminations are carried out after 20 weeks (1.45%). The women who seek these late stage terminations tend to be the most vulnerable of women in particular those carrying foetuses with severe genetic abnormalities. Restricting time limits on abortion would not remove the need for the procedure and would only affect women in difficult positions”.

"This issue is especially important to Irish women" continues spokesperson Niav Keating. "Irish women, due to the delays associated with travelling outside the State, are more likely to have later terminations than their British counterparts. We are delighted that the 24 week time limit will remain in the UK but we renew our call for the Irish government to introduce free, safe and legal abortion services".

Quotes End.