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?

Abortion campaigner to head Ireland's health service. 

More on Tony O'Brien's appointment. A statement from the Pro Life Campaign via their Facebook page. The Independent describes O'Brien as one of Reilly's "key executives." Reilly is an intelligent man, he is a doctor after all. He is also a businessman, though he has been described as more of a businessman than a doctor. This worries me as the debt default issue would suggest that he is not much of a businessman either. The point I'm trying to make is that he is a terrible politician, he seems to have no idea ...

Pro Life Campaign says new HSE appointment sends the wrong message on abortion

27th July 2012

The Minister for Health James Reilly today appointed Mr Tony O’Brien as the new Director General of the HSE.  Mr O'Brien was previously the Chief Executive of the Irish Family Planning Association and a leading campaigner for abortion in Ireland.
Commenting on the Minister for Health’s latest appointment, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson, Cora Sherlock said:
“Ever since the Clare Daly Bill on abortion, Minister Reilly has been effectively relying on the speaking notes of the pro-abortion movement rather than defending Fine Gael’s pre-election pro-life commitments.
“Now he has appointed someone as Director General of the HSE who has spent most of his career campaigning for abortion on demand in Ireland. The political message sent by this appointment is unmistakable. Whether it’s the issue or the optics, clearly Minister Reilly doesn’t get it.
“Of more concern, however, to pro-life supporters is the manner in which the Expert Group process initiated by the Minister is descending into farce.
“Both Minister Reilly and Minister of State Kathleen Lynch have already made public statements pre-empting its findings and it will come as no surprise if it reports back with a narrow list of options all advocating abortion. If this happens, it will have nothing to do with women’s health or the right to life and everything to do with politics.”

Former head of IFPA to head Ireland's health service, well done minister Reilly, you get the prize for most cock ups this Summer. 

James Reilly believes that he doesn't have enough trouble on his plate. His recent appearance in Stubbs Gazette as a debt defaulter hasn't caused him enough grief, he has decided to appoint a former head of the largest organized campaigner for abortion in Ireland as head of the new health service.
As chief executive of the IFPA Mr Tony O'Brien was very critical of Ireland and her laws in this regard. Mr O'Reilly was very vocal more than ten years ago when the statistics showed that the number of Irish women seeking abortions in Britain was on the rise, responding to the release of statistics in 2000 he said: "... we are doing very little to seriously tackle the underlying issue of unplanned pregnancy."The numbers have declined over the last ten years, the IFPA have their own spin on that but it can't be explained by contraception, not when the birth rate is at a 118 year high and abortions are at a 30 year low.
Mr O'Brien has spent the last ten years working in the health services. He seems to have done very well there. I can't take his success from him. His appointment as head of the nation's health services is a strange move, this cannot be denied. The minister cannot claim that he was not aware of Mr O'Brien's résumé. Because of this Mr. O'Brien's appointment at this time, when abortion is being discussed with such heat his appointment for a three year period is extraordinary arrogant by O'Reilly. O'Reilly has made other decisions where he has been criticized for his arrogance but this one takes the biscuit. Considering some of the actions Mr O'Brien took and remarks that he made during his tenure as chief of the IFPA the only thing that can be said is that his appointment is thoroughly unsuitable at this time once you consider the issue that James Reilly has told us that he will legislate.
Thankfully some within Fine Gael have the courage to stand up to Reilly and I hope that others will develop the same but this appointment while it will give comfort to the Labour Party it will do nothing to boost support for Fine Gael. Having two Junior Ministers in your department, at least one of which feels slighted that the resignation of the head of the HSE wasn't made known to her before it was announced publicly, isn't working well for Reilly.
Of course there is one other possibility, that Reilly is just not up to the job.

Ignoring abortion regret. 

If you frequent discussion boards about abortion you will, from time to time, see people disusing abortion regret. Now those who are content with having liberal abortion laws and a liberal abortion culture blame conservative, Catholic guilt culture and so on. If only people weren't so judgmental. I've seen people write things like women who have regrets over their abortions should just "suck it up" "get over it" and so on.
A study released by the HSE recently reveled that 44% of women who have had an abortion regret the experience. That is an enormous amount and begs the question,  are women who regret their abortions being ignored? It also, and maybe more importantly, begs the question, what is being done to help women who have regrets?
There is help out there though. Women who have been through the experience are there to help others. Women Hurt is an organization where women who have had abortions and regret them reach out to other women who have regrets to offer hope and healing. They want to tell those contemplating having an abortion that there is another side. Women Hurt have their own website, that can be accessed here, womenhurt.ie
Here is a statement by the Pro Life Campaign on the findings with further analysis.

Study showing regret after abortion must be considered by the Minister For Health says Pro Life Campaign

15th May 2012

A comprehensive study showing that 44 per cent of women expressed varying degrees of regret about their abortions “must be urgently considered by the Minister for Health”, the Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has said.
They were responding to the Irish Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy Study 2010 (ICCP 2010), produced by the HSE's Crisis Pregnancy Programme (CPP).
The study showed that 31pc of women who had abortion experienced "some regrets", with 13pc reporting that they experienced “a lot of regrets”. This represents an increase from 2003, when 22pc reported experiencing some regret, with 11pc saying they had a lot of regrets.
Spokesperson for the PLC, Dr Ruth Cullen, said the figures showed that the abortion debate “needed to make room for the voices of the increasing number of women who regret their abortion”.
She said: "While there has been considerable media focus on the stories of women who wished to see abortion legal in Ireland, the same cannot be said for the stories of women who regret their abortions. This has to change.
She said: “Even organisations like the National Women's Council of Ireland, which are supposed to represent all women, dismiss organisations that seek to express the pain of women hurt by abortion.
Dr Cullen also said that Minister James Reilly needs to take into account the experiences of women who regretted their abortion and ensure that counselling services also acknowledge this reality.
She expressed surprise that the CPP had not conducted research into the mental health impact of abortion, given the fact that there were now a number of studies showing that abortion presented a considerable risk to the mental health of women.
Dr. Cullen said: “A number of peer reviewed studies have now shown that women who have abortions are up to 30pc more likely to experience subsequent mental health problems. This is even after those studies controlled for women with pre-existing mental health conditions.
“One might have expected a comprehensive study on crisis pregnancy to have examined this area.”
Dr Cullen also noted that the study's findings on attitudes to abortion were compromised by the question asked.
According to the survey, 45 per cent of adults believed abortion should be permissible in all circumstances, down from over 50 per cent in a similar study in 2003. And 44 per cent said it should be available under certain circumstances, up from 39 per cent in 2003.
However, Dr Cullen said, the survey's question relating to abortion when there is a risk to the woman's life “failed to make the distinction between medical interventions in pregnancy to save the mother's life and induced abortion, the sole aim of which is to end the life of the baby.
She said that this shortcoming in the research made the findings on attitudes to abortion “effectively irrelevant”.