Crisis Pregnancy Programme

Information

The HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme (formerly the Crisis Pregnancy Agency) is responsible for developing and implementing a national strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy. It is a national programme working within the Children and Family Social Services Care Group in the HSE. The Crisis Pregnancy Programme works to achieve the following core objectives:

• A reduction in the number of crisis pregnancies by the provision of education, advice and contraceptive services.
• A reduction in the number of women with crisis pregnancies who opt for abortion by offering services and supports which make other options more attractive.
• The provision of counselling services, medical services and such other health services for the purpose of providing support, after crisis pregnancy, as may be deemed appropriate by the Crisis Pregnancy Programme.

The 2007-2011 Strategy focuses on 3 central objectives, derived from the Crisis Pregnancy Programme’s mandates.

• Reduce the number of crisis pregnancies
• Reduce the number of woman choosing abortion as an outcome of crisis pregnancy
• Safeguard women’s physical and mental health following termination of pregnancy.

Crisis pregnancies and pregnancy counselling

The programme has a website called Positive Options. This site provides details of organisations that offer pregnancy counselling services in confidence and privacy for women living in Ireland. These counselling services are free of charge. Positive Options also provides an mobile telephone (SMS text) facility to enable enquirers to receive information on services in their county of choice.

Many family doctors (GP's) also provide services for women with unplanned pregnancies. If you need support and help, you can contact your GP or doctor in your area.

In a counselling session, the Counsellor will help you to work towards finding a solution to your unexpected pregnancy. Pregnancy counselling provides an opportunity for you to explore your feelings about your pregnancy and to discuss the various options open to you.

The Crisis Pregnancy Programme does not provide counselling or advisory services directly to women. Instead, a number of family doctors (GP's) and voluntary agencies provide services directly to women.

Abortion Aftercare

A campaign to direct women to post-abortion counselling and medical check-ups has been running since November 2008. Women are encouraged to visit abortionaftercare.ie or to freetext AFTERCARE to 50444 for details of services that provide free, non-judgemental post-abortion counselling and medical check-ups.