‘Crisis pregnancy service affected by Church’

BISHOPS should have no involvement in crisis pregnancy counselling services, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Senator Mary Henry said it was “quite unsuitable” for the bishops’ conference to influence the type of information such services offer.

Deputy Fiona O’Malley, meanwhile, stressed that the separation of Church and State “has absolutely got to be total”.

Both were speaking in relation to the ongoing controversy involving Cura, the Church’s counselling and support service for women dealing with crisis pregnancies.

The State’s Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) provides substantial funding to Cura, and as part of its contract, the latter is expected to distribute the “Positive Options” leaflet to women seeking help. The leaflet gives details of organisations which supply information on abortion.

Earlier this year, however, the bishops requested Cura to stop distributing the leaflet until a further decision was taken.

Yesterday, CPA chairwoman Olive Braiden said women were legally entitled to obtain information about abortion and the agreement with Cura was that its counsellors would refer elsewhere women who sought such information.

But rather than hand out the leaflet, Cura’s current practice was to refer women seeking information on abortions to a GP, whose names came from a list apparently drawn up by the Church, Ms Braiden said.