Minister calls for IFPA investigation.

Illegal advice by Irish Family Planning Association to be Investigated.

The story in last Saturday's Irish Independent is beginning to cause a stir in political circles. As of yet the national broadcaster, RTÉ have refused to cover the story other than a mention in their online presence. They even refused to cover it in their "As it says in the papers" section. This is another example of the pro-abortion bias which has taken hold of the entity which, despite advertizing revenue and forcing every household in the state to pay a €160 tax still can't stop losing money. If you haven't already then go take a look at www.hearbothsides.org and see examples of RTÉ's bias in this area. There was no mention of it at all in the Irish Times. Maybe they're waiting for Ireland's leading intellectual Fintan O'Toole to offer more advice to Ireland's farmers before they comment. Gemma O'Doherty has followed up her story from Saturday with some of the political reaction.

HSE chiefs face grilling over illegal advice on abortions

HSE chiefs are to be quizzed by a Dail committee about revelations that staff at some state-funded crisis pregnancy services gave illegal and medically dangerous advice to women during one-to-one counselling sessions.
And Junior Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton described the allegations - revealed in the Irish Independent on Saturday - as "extremely serious" and said they "must be investigated by all of the appropriate authorities".

The full story is to be found here.

The Irish Family Planning Association offers a "comprehensive range of services" even ones detrimental to women's health.

Abortion campaigner uses taxpayer funds to endanger women's health!

It was revealed in this morning's Irish Independent that the Crisis Pregnancy Program which comes under the HSE is implicated in a scandal whereby women were offered advice that was dangerous and potentially illegal. It is astounding that an organization like the IFPA which is Ireland's leading pro-abortion organization to the extent it took the state to court receives taxpayer funds in order to advance its agenda. The money it receives is to provide non-directive counselling. Instead we see that the advice offered isn't just in contravention of those conditions it is dangerous and potentially illegal. It's time for our elected representatives and especially the Minister for Health, Dr Reilly to call for an investigation.
This story is due to the excellent investigative reporting of Gemma O'Doherty and the women who actually caught the IFPA people on tape.

Revealed: the abortion advice that could put lives at risk.

   
STAFF at some taxpayer-funded pregnancy counselling services are putting women's lives at risk and breaking the law, an undercover probe has revealed.Some of the advice they gave about abortion was illegal, according to a leading lawyer, and some was medically dangerous, a top doctor says.In several instances, women were told to hide their abortions from their doctors, a course of action that could endanger life if post-surgery abortion complications remain undiagnosed.

Read more here.

Also in today's Irish Independent medical and legal experts have their say on this story.

Shocking breach of good medical practice, says Rotunda chief

A LEADING obstetrician has warned that advice given by some taxpayer-funded pregnancy-counselling services is putting women's lives in danger.
Sam Coulter Smith, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal College of Surgeons, said he was "shocked and very disappointed" to learn that Irish women who travel to Britain for abortions are being told they should hide this from their doctors.
The findings, which emerged as part of an undercover investigation into crisis-pregnancy counselling services, are now the subject of an HSE probe.

More about that here.
Considering the fact that the Minister for Health thinks that the former head of the IFPA is an appropriate person to head the HSE the question must be asked, is the HSE the appropriate body to investigate this scandal?

500, no, 5,000, no, 2,500, no 2,000 ...

I was going to blog about the March for abortion choice which goes under the rather disingenuous title March for Choice (variously #march4choice and #marchforchoice on Twitter), I mean what choice are they talking about? Boxers or briefs, paper or plastic? No they want the choice to kill human persons. Anyway I could go on about that but as I said I was going to blog about the march but the story of the day wasn't the march itself or the rather predictable speeches (the capitalist bishops want to control your fertility and ignore the bank bailout - Clare Wallace neé Daly, late of the Socialist Party) but the numbers fiasco.
I'd link to the story in the Irish Times, posted almost two hours after the conclusion of the march, that mentioned how the turnout was dismal, around 500 only it changed later that night. Between 6PM and about 11 Twitter was alive with people encouraging pro abortion choice advocates to contact the Irish Times, eventually the paper of Ricard relented and changed to a rather vague report of thousands turning up.
Anyway, the fiasco is captured pretty comprehensibly here in this new blog.   The Quicker goes the journalist the slower go his thoughts.