A key section of a major report on crisis pregnancies, which the Government has refused to publish for two years, calls for family planning services to be made available, free of charge, to all women in the State.
The "Women and Crisis Pregnancy Study", which The Irish Times has read, says sterilisation should be available in all hospitals under the medical card scheme, and that basic information on abortion should be given along with information on adoption and lone motherhood.
The study was undertaken by a research team from the Department of Sociology in Trinity College headed by Dr Evelyn Mahon. It was submitted to the Government's Inter-departmental Group on Abortion and was published in March 1998.
However, the then minister for health, Mr Cowen, refused to publish its recommendations, claiming it would be wrong to do so while the consultation process leading to the Green Paper on abortion was under way.
The new Minister for Health, Mr Martin, was asked again about plans to publish the recommendations by the Labour TD, Mr Michael D. Higgins, in a parliamentary question three weeks ago. The Minister said all submissions made in connection with the Green Paper on abortion were treated as confidential.
"It has not therefore been the policy of my Department to disclose their contents."
The report recommends that it should be mandatory for all GPs to provide contraceptive services and this should form part of their contracts. It wants the maternity (mother and child) scheme extended to give all women access to family planning services. "This would be especially beneficial to young adolescent women and women on low incomes," it says.
The morning-after pill should be made available in all hospital accident and emergency departments, as in Britain, it says, while information on pill use should be more widely available, and sexually active men should be encouraged "as an act of responsible adulthood" to carry condoms.
The report calls for the introduction of regulations to ensure that all condoms comply with a recognised quality standard. "Condom vending machines should be installed in all pubs, clubs and places of entertainment frequented by young people."
The reports says sterilisation should be available in all hospitals and be provided within the General Medical Scheme.
It says basic information on abortion should be given simultaneously with information on adoption and lone motherhood. "This information should be provided in an information booklet, which should include full information on abortion, adoption and lone motherhood." Details of UK clinics providing abortion and related counselling services in Ireland should also be included.
It says all pregnancy counselling agencies should be regulated and licensed by the Department of Health.
The report also calls on the Government to change its fiscal and social policies to be supportive of child-rearing. The present tax system should be revised to assist women with the costs of children and childcare.
In a paper delivered on the crisis pregnancy study recently, Dr Mahon said one of the main conclusions to be made from the Green Paper is that a total constitutional ban on abortion is untenable, especially in terms of both existing medical practices and recent legal interpretations.
"So some limited regulation seems to be legally feasible, though it still may be politically untenable."
Dr Mahon said it was ironic that the study "has exposed a somewhat unpalatable truth about abortions, i.e., that the majority of abortions obtained by Irish women would not be covered by limited or restrictive legislations".