HSE in 'constant battle' to be found ahead of 'rogue' crisis pregnancy agencies in online searches

The HSE says it faces a constant online battle to ensure that someone searching for crisis pregnancy information does not come across a rogue agency.

The health service says women seek information about abortion services primarily online.

Speaking at the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment, Janice Donlon, who is with the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme, says they try to make sure women access legitimate services.

"Rogue agencies, these disingenuous agencies, are targeting women by increasing their spend in terms of paid adwords on Google," she said.

"What we in the HSE do to try and combat that is we try to outbid them in terms of search words.

"It is a constant battle in terms of trying to ensure that our information, the funded services, the Positive Options information, comes up first."