‘Give free birth control to all women’

FREE contraception should be made available to all women, regardless of their age, Green Party senator Pauline O’Reilly has urged.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly this week announced that free contraception will be extended to all women up to the age of 35 by the end of this year.

The Free Contraception Scheme (FCS) was introduced for women aged 17 to 25 in 2022 and extended to women aged up to 31 at the beginning of this year.

Around 2,400 GPs and 2,050 pharmacists are offering the scheme and over 198,000 people accessed it last year. GP visits are free under the scheme.

Senator O’Reilly is calling on the minister to make the scheme available to all women, and said she will continue to push for free contraception for all women regardless of age.

‘We made historic progress in women’s healthcare with the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, but if we want an equal Ireland for every woman we must also reform other aspects of reproductive care,’ she said.

‘The right forms of contraception can be very expensive, costing hundreds of euro, and many will choose the most affordable option available, even though a longer-term option might be more appropriate.’

Senator O’Reilly is running in the forthcoming European elections in the Midlands-North-West constituency.

The updated Women’s Health Action Plan for 2024-2025 also includes a commitment to increase the capacity of specialist menopause clinics and to expand gynaecology clinics.

Over €11million will be invested in the action plan, which also aims to expand termination-of-pregnancy services and methods of abortion nationally to two more sites.

Only two maternity hospitals – at Cavan and Clonmel, Co. Tipperary – are still not providing full abortion services.

The action plan says that services will be commencing in those final two hospitals this year.