State launches strategy aimed at reducing crisis pregnancies

DELAYING early teenage sexual activity forms a key part of the State’s latest strategy to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies.

Action will also be taken to ensure that all secondary schools are fully implementing the Relationships and Sexuality Education Programme.

Research commissioned by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency and Department of Education found that one in 10 schools do not teach the sexual education programme at all and just a third were fully implementing it.

The new five-year plan, published yesterday by the CPA, also aims to reduce the number of women having abortions. About 15% of women experiencing a crisis pregnancy had an abortion and are more likely to be aged between 18 and 25.

Agency chairwoman Katharine Bulbulia said improving knowledge about relationships and sexuality among adolescents through home, school and community-based education was a priority.

A DVD and booklet is available to parents to help them communicate with children aged between 11 and 15 about sex and relationships. More than 53,000 packs have been distributed to parents and parent groups this year.

Next week the agency will use a Sunday newspaper to distribute a supplement for parents to help them talk openly about sex and relationships with older teenagers.

The agency will develop two-year campaign aimed at delaying early sexual activity by adolescents and a three-year marketing campaign on effective contraceptive use.

It makes a case for minimising the cost of contraception to ensure consistent contraceptive use by sexually active young men and women.

The strategy also aims to improve the sexual health information available to asylum seekers and promote the availability of free post-abortion medical and counselling services.

Director Caroline Spillane said the agency planned to have quality assurance measures for crisis pregnancy counselling and post-abortion counselling services. A new National University of Ireland accreditation programme for crisis pregnancy counsellors in State-funded agencies commenced earlier this month.

The agency will also continue its work to improve workplace policies that are crucial in crisis pregnancy decision making.

“Research confirms that decisions to continue a pregnancy and decisions to continue in work are significantly influenced by workplace policy and culture,” said Ms Spillane.

The agency would also be investing about 500,000 over the next three years in projects aimed at encouraging men to help their partner deal with a crisis pregnancy.

Health Minister Mary Harney, who launched the strategy, said the agency had already made a very effective contribution to reducing the incidence of crisis pregnancy.

The numbers of women travelling to Britain for an abortion had reduced from 7.5 per 1,000 in 2001 to six per 1,000 in 2006, while the abortion rate for teenagers decreased from 6 per 1,000 to 4.5 over the same period.

She pointed out that there were 2,320 births to teenagers in 2005, compared to 3,106 in 2000.

Asked about the campaign to reduce the cost of contraception, Ms Harney said Ireland did not have the freedom to remove VAT from items like condoms. “There are EU-wide implications in relation to those issues,” she pointed out.