Irish Family Planning Association
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) is an Irish charity working to enable people to make informed choices about
Early history
The availability of
Ireland's first family planning clinic, the Fertility Guidance Company Ltd (later to change its name to the IFPA), was established by seven volunteers in Merrion Square, Dublin, in 1969. Among the founder-members were Dr. Michael Solomons, a gynaecologist, Dr. Dermot Hourihane, a pathologist, Dr. James Loughran, Dr. Joan Wilson and Dr. Robert Towers (editor of the
By the end of 1970 the association was holding six clinics a week. They had acquired eleven doctors including another gynaecologist, Rosemary Jordan, sixteen lay workers, an extra nurse, a financial administrator, a waiting list of three to four weeks, and had seen 1180 new patients. There was difficulty in obtaining contraceptives; Joyce Neill, Chairwoman of the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association, helped by arranging that doctors who lived near the border would drive across into Donegal and post contraceptives to Dublin.[3]
In 1970 Dr. Michael Solomons was invited by two professors at Trinity College to lecture on family planning to medical students as part of their pharmacology courses. It was the first time that an Irish medical school had included the subject as a part of the curriculum.[3]
Historical developments
On 22 May 1971, with the support of the IFPA, a group of
In December 1971 Family Planning – A Guide for Parents and Prospective Parents, a booklet written by three members of the IFPA Education Committee, Drs. Loughran, Nowlan, and Towers, was published. It became extremely popular and thousands of copies were distributed over the following years.[3]
In late 1975 the Galway Family Planning Association was set up,[5] which was at the centre of a highly publicised controversy involving the Fine Gael TD Fintan Coogan, Fianna Fáil mayor Mary Byrne and Deirdre Manifold, convenor of a public rosary crusade, on one side, and staff and medical students of what was then known as University College Galway (UCG) on the other.[6] Amongst those supporting the presence of a family-planning clinic were Michael D. Higgins, then a lecturer, and Eamon Gilmore, then a graduate student.[7] Members of the student union claimed that Opus Dei had co-ordinated the opposition to the clinic. The clinic opened on Raleigh Row on 21 July 1977, with Tuam GP Dr John Waldron becoming one of the first volunteer doctors.[6]
In November 1976, the Censorship of Publications Board banned the IFPA's booklet Family Planning – A Guide for Parents and Prospective Parents - the Board considered the booklet "indecent or obscene". Victor Bewley, Maurice E. Dockrell TD and Senator Evelyn Owens headed an appeal fund to go to court where the ban was rescinded.[3]
In 1978 the
In 1988 the Irish Supreme Court barred family-planning clinics from telling pregnant women that lawful abortions are available in England. At that time about 5,000 Irish women were travelling abroad each year to have abortions.[9]
In 1991, the IFPA was fined IR£700 for selling condoms in the Virgin Megastore in Dublin, in contravention of the legislation which restricted sale of contraceptives to pharmacies and other approved outlets.
The "
In 2005 the IFPA sued Ireland's government at the
In 2010 the IFPA was awarded the Pearl of Wisdom Award, which is given by the European Cervical Cancer Association to individuals and groups that have made exceptional efforts to prevent cervical cancer in their communities.[13]
The most recent statistics show that 4,149 Irish women had abortions in Britain in 2011.[14] This is a ten-year low[15] at a time where the birth rate is at a historic high.[16]
Departments
The IFPA has the following departments:[17]
- Medical Department, which runs family planning clinics.
- Counselling Department, which offers professional crisis-pregnancy counselling.
- Education & Training Department, which provides specialist training courses.
- Advocacy & Communications Department, which deals with media, public relations and policy.
International affiliations
The IFPA is affiliated with:[18]
- International Planned Parenthood Federation
- United Nations Population Fund
- The European NGOs for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Population and Development[19]
- The European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development
Publications
The Irish Journey - Women's Stories of Abortion. IFPA, Dublin, 2000.
See also
References
- ^ Website Archived 2012-03-10 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "History of sexual health in Ireland". IFPA. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
- ^ a b c d http://ifpa.hyperlink.ie/index.php/eng/content/download/371/2519/file/pro-life_irishquestion.pdf[permanent dead link]
- ^ The Field day anthology of Irish writing: Irish women's writing and traditions edited by Angela Bourke; NYU Press 2002, pp. 200-201
- ISBN 9781847658562.
- ^ a b Cunningham, Dr John (March 2011). "Spreading VD all over Connacht: Reproductive rights and wrongs in 1970s Galway" (PDF). Galway. NUI Galway. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 2, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
- ^ Andrews, Kernan (10 March 2011). "1970s Galway, condoms, and the Advertiser". Local News. Galway Advertiser. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
- ^ Irish Statute Book: Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 (Section 4) Archived 2005-05-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Nation, 30 March 1992
- JSTOR 3775009.
- ^ ECHR 2032
- ^ 'Moral values' of abortion law defended, The Irish Times 12 Dec 2009
- ^ "EU group praises Irish cervical cancer awareness campaign". Public Health. Irish Medical Times. 8 February 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
- ^ Irish Independent, October 27, 2012
- ^ Historical Abortion Statistics, Ireland. Robert Johnson
- ^ Irish Times, March 30, 2012
- ^ "IFPA Departments". IFPA. Archived from the original on November 24, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- ^ "Who we work with". IFPA. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
- ^ "The European NGOs for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Population and Development". EuroNGOs. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-1861979186.)
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