Another twist in Blessington family planning leaflets row
March 1995
Two explicit family planning leaflets have set a women’s group in Blessington and County Wicklow Vocational Committee at loggerheads over the past six months.
The vocational education committee’s decision last week to refer the two leaflets to the Attorney General, Dermot Gleeson, for an opinion on their legality is the latest twist on a tortuous road which embraces issues of national morality.
At the heart of the dispute is whether or not the Irish Family Planning Association leaflets, ‘Unexpected Pregnancy’ and ‘Client Services’, which are on display at the VEC education centre in Blessington, actually promote abortion or offer a referral service in breach of the law.
But, hidden behind the arguments about legality and morality, there is another issue: that of the role of the VEC as an educator and conduit for knowledge and learning.
County Wicklow VEC derives its existence and statutory powers from the Vocational Education Act 1930, which sets out its duties to establish and develop a suitable system of continuation education in the area as well as supplying technical education.
However, a scenario where the council’s premises would be used for the dissemination of information of such a sensitive nature could never have been envisaged 65 years ago when Ireland was a vastly different society.
Last week. County Wicklow VEC issued a statement which said: ‘Members of the [Blessington Women’s] group are currently providing an information and counselling service on some of the most sensitive issues of human behaviour - a service which should be located more properly in the hands of trained professionals working in the Department of Health and Social Welfare.’
The rationale for this statement appears to be that it is the VEC which is uncomfortable with the sensitive nature of the service being provided.
The documents in question are family planning leaflets which have been funded by the Health Education Bureau and which were specifically designed to be available to women outside, as well as within, the health services structure.
The questions which arise are whether or not the VEC has any role in facilitating the provision of family planning information as part of its remit; and whether the VEC is obliged, or indeed entitled, to act as moral arbiter of what information should or should not be made available by independent groups through premises which it owns.