Threat to Irish pro-life charities, and sex ed

Action: prayers, please, for the Irish pro-life charities and Irish families. These stories reflect the European consensus, to which no exceptions can be made, and the dangers of voluntary and charitable organisations receiving money from the state

From SPUC: Catholic pregnancy counselling charities in Ireland may lose their state financial support as they have not yet signed a new contract with the government funding agency. By signing the contract with the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA), CURA and Life would be forced to give women leaflets containing the names and addresses of other agencies that would provide them with information about abortion clinics abroad. The chief executive of the CPA, Caroline Spillane, said that no exemptions would be granted from the terms of the contract but that negotiations were going on. [Irish Independent, 12 July] Patrick Buckley of European Life Network, Dublin, said: "This is clearly a new attempt by the crisis pregnancy agency to attach unconstitutional provisions to government funding of pro-life counselling agencies. Cura and Life are right and they should continue to reject the contracts until they are satisfactorily amended. No amount of funding is worth one single life."

Katherine Bulbulia, the chairwoman of CPA said that all women who have a crisis pregnancy should attend counselling sessions, after it was reported that only one in three such women did so. She said: "For that to happen, a woman needs to be able to choose with confidence the agency that best suits her needs." She emphasised that all crisis pregnancy counselling had to provide the same level of information regardless of the organisation's ethos. [Irish Examiner, 12 July]

The Irish government is to invest €4.5 million in sex education in the country. The CPA, which is working with the Department of Education and the Health Service Executive, has said that the plans are essential to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies in Ireland. They plan to develop a DVD and a lesson plan. [Belfast Telegraph, 11 July] Patrick Buckley said: "Given the unsatisfactory record of the CPA, they should not be trusted to provide any sex-ed programmes. This kind of education is best carried by parents. When the programme becomes available, we will issue a full report."