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AROUND 200 PEOPLE turned out this evening to protest outside a clinic in Dublin’s north inner city that has been the focus of controversy in recent days, after footage from an undercover report was published.
Health Minister Simon Harris said yesterday he was “extraordinarily concerned” and “sickened” by the undercover footage, which showed a woman in the clinic giving misinformation about abortion.
In a report for The Times (Ireland edition), reporters Ellen Coyne and Catherine Sanz secretly recorded a consultation in the clinic between a staff member and a woman seeking advice on a crisis pregnancy.
It is alleged a staff member at the Women’s Centre, on Berkeley Street in Dublin 7, advised the woman that abortion increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer and that women who have had abortions are “known to neglect their children”.
Protesters – some carrying placards, others wearing high-vis clothing – began to gather outside the centre at around 6.30pm. The centre is located next door to Reproductive Choices, an advice clinic aligned to the Marie Stopes organisation.
AAA-PBP TD Bríd Smith and a number of other speakers addressed the demonstration. Many protesters wore ‘Repeal the 8th’ t-shirts and sweatshirts.
Protester Kate Mooney, who spoke to TheJournal.ie at this evening’s demonstration, said she too felt “sick” and angry after viewing the footage.
I just thought of how many people have gone in there and not known – that haven’t been told it’s nonsense, and had their choices and their decisions affected by it.
“It’s just so upsetting that it’s allowed. How is it allowed? How is there nobody looking into it? I’m shocked.”
Taoiseach’s comments
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said earlier that he was expecting Minister Harris to report to government on what new legislation might be required to clamp down on clinics giving misleading information on abortion.
“The minister will report to government in due course as to what can be done and whether that might require regulation legislatively or otherwise,” he told reporters at an event in Dublin.
Kenny added:
Clearly women in this situation are entitled to be given absolute truthful information that is accurate. That is the reason they are seeking advice in the first place.
Speaking yesterday, Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar said the new proposals to regulate the counselling and psychotherapy profession could be used to regulate such clinics.
According to Varadkar:
I think it is very important that all counselling and psychotherapy be regulated – it’s not just about abortion clinics – it’s about all forms of counselling.
As it stands, he said, almost anyone can say they are a counsellor.
They could have done a night course or a weekend course and put up a brass plate and say they are a counsellor.
There are people out there that claim to be suicide counsellors and addiction counsellors and their qualifications are pretty shaky and it is very much a patient safety issue.
Rogue pregnancy agencies have been operating in Ireland for over a decade without any regulation. There have been repeated calls for statutory regulations for pregnancy advice and counselling services, but successive governments have failed to legislate.
With reporting by Christina Finn and Daragh Brophy
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