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The Women’s Centre, which was secretly filmed giving out abortion advice described by a leading consultant as dangerous and inaccurate, was advertising itself through the website AbortionAdvice.ie.
Over the past few months the clinic appears to have paid to be one of the first Google results for those searching from an Irish IP address for advice on how to access an abortion. The clinic claims to offer impartial and objective advice but has links to a Catholic anti-abortion group.
“Don’t be manipulated,” the website says.
“Some agencies may not have your best interests at heart.”
When The Times rang the Abortion Advice helpline a woman said that it was the national helpline “for the whole of Ireland.”
“Our main centre is Dublin, we have centres in Cork, Galway, an outreach centre in Sligo and we have other outreach centres,” she said.
The reporter, posing as a young pregnant woman, was also told that the centre had clinics in Bristol and London, which it would “liaise with” on her behalf. The woman who answered the phone warned that the reporter should choose which UK clinic she would visit carefully as she might get an infection.
“[The Women’s Centre] will give you advice on the best places to go. Some of the outlets for abortion are not, you know . . . to be recommended,” she said.
She added: “Some of them have been . . . turned down by the NHS for being not properly, you know, cleansed.”
The Women’s Centre also lists an address at Bell Street, north London, on its website. In 2013 the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the London centre was in breach of its code of standards for giving the “misleading and irresponsible” impression that it was an abortion clinic. It runs abortionchoices.org, a UK website that the ASA said made “problem claims.”
“The Women’s Centre, previously known as Central London Women’s Centre, is in breach of the UK Advertising Standards Code for failing to make clear that a service offering advice on unplanned pregnancy did not refer women directly for a termination and also for giving the misleading impression that [it] was an abortion clinic,”it said.
“Despite repeated requests to amend the ad in line with the ruling [it] has failed to do so.”
The ASA said in March that the website had still not been altered to comply with the advertising code in the three years since the ruling was made.
Abortion clinics in Ireland that do not receive state funding are not subject to regulation on the information they give out.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said the health service had been aware of a number of crisis pregnancy counselling services that had been offering questionable advice.
“[They] advertise themselves as crisis pregnancy counselling services but can cause considerable upset and anxiety to women already in a very difficult situation,” she said.
“The HSE does not have any power to regulate crisis pregnancy counselling or to prosecute, but has addressed this problem in a number of ways.”
She said it had run several advertising campaigns promoting regulated and state-run services.
The Women’s Centre, which was secretly filmed giving out abortion advice described by a leading consultant as dangerous and inaccurate, was advertising itself through the website AbortionAdvice.ie (Ellen Coyne and Catherine Sanz write).
Over the past few months the clinic appears to have paid to be one of the first Google results for those searching from an Irish IP address for advice on how to access an abortion. The clinic claims to offer impartial and objective advice but has links to a Catholic anti-abortion group.
“Don’t be manipulated,” the website says.
“Some agencies may not have your best interests at heart.”
When The Times rang the Abortion Advice helpline a woman said that it was the national helpline “for the whole of Ireland.”
“Our main centre is Dublin, we have centres in Cork, Galway, an outreach centre in Sligo and we have other outreach centres,” she said.
The reporter, posing as a young pregnant woman, was also told that the centre had clinics in Bristol and London, which it would “liaise with” on her behalf. The woman who answered the phone warned that the reporter should choose which UK clinic she would visit carefully as she might get an infection.
“[The Women’s Centre] will give you advice on the best places to go. Some of the outlets for abortion are not, you know . . . to be recommended,” she said.
She added: “Some of them have been . . . turned down by the NHS for being not properly, you know, cleansed.”
The Women’s Centre also lists an address at Bell Street, north London, on its website. In 2013 the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the London centre was in breach of its code of standards for giving the “misleading and irresponsible” impression that it was an abortion clinic. It runs abortionchoices.org, a UK website that the ASA said made “problem claims.”
“The Women’s Centre, previously known as Central London Women’s Centre, is in breach of the UK Advertising Standards Code for failing to make clear that a service offering advice on unplanned pregnancy did not refer women directly for a termination and also for giving the misleading impression that [it] was an abortion clinic,”it said.
“Despite repeated requests to amend the ad in line with the ruling [it] has failed to do so.”
The ASA said in March that the website had still not been altered to comply with the advertising code in the three years since the ruling was made.
Abortion clinics in Ireland that do not receive state funding are not subject to regulation on the information they give out.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said the health service had been aware of a number of crisis pregnancy counselling services that had been offering questionable advice.
“[They] advertise themselves as crisis pregnancy counselling services but can cause considerable upset and anxiety to women already in a very difficult situation,” she said.
“The HSE does not have any power to regulate crisis pregnancy counselling or to prosecute, but has addressed this problem in a number of ways.”
She said it had run several advertising campaigns promoting regulated and state-run services.
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