Almost €1 million was spent by the Health Service Executive (HSE) on advertising abortion through its official ‘My Options’ helpline in the first four years of legal abortion in Ireland.
In response to a Parliamentary Question (PQ) from Independent TD Carol Nolan in February, in which the pro-life TD asked for a breakdown of spending on advertising campaigns related to abortion provision, the HSE said it had spent €95,071 on advertising its official abortion helpline in 2022 alone.
The year prior, in 2021, that figure reached €155,322, while in 2020, it splashed €149,177 on advertising its official helpline. In 2019, that figure was significantly higher, with the HSE spending a total of €434,754 promoting the My Options helpline in its first year. The total cost spent on advertising in the first four years of legal abortion comes in at €834,324.
The money has been spent promoting the HSE’s ‘MyOptions’ hotline, which directly provides women with information on how to obtain an abortion in Ireland.
According to the HSE, the freephone helpline provides “information and judgement-free counselling to anyone having an unplanned pregnancy”.
In a statement, the HSE said the spending was related to “combating” what it described as “disingenuous messaging” from pro-life pregnancy centres.
It said: “To help combat the promotion of disingenuous messaging, the HSE are monitoring any competitors and have set a bid management strategy to automatically increase their bids if another website appears ahead of theirs.
“The HSE monitor the search ad performance and that of disingenuous agencies on an on-going basis and share feedback with Google.”
However, pro-life group Life Institute said that it was the government who was offering a disingenuous message by failing to offer women real alternatives to abortion, and by acting with malice towards those who wanted to help women.
The outranking of pro-life groups offering advice and alternatives to abortion has emerged as a clear theme. Speaking at the end of last month, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly spoke about the State’s bid to stop “rogue” pro-life crisis pregnancy centres operating in Ireland alongside the well-funded My Options service.
“Regarding the number of rogue crisis pregnancy agencies, The HSE – along with my department are aware and continue to monitor the situation in relation to disingenuous agencies operating in Ireland,” he told the Dail when pressed on the issue by Labour Leader Ivana Bacik.
He said: “The HSE recommend that people should contact My Options which is the official HSE service if they need information or support in the event of an unplanned pregnancy, or if they need post-abortion supports”.
Mr Donnelly also laid out measures taken by the HSE to stop pro-life organisations offering alternatives to abortion, explaining that a route taken has been spending money on advertising MyOptions, including radio advertising and targeted Google search ads.
“The HSE has taken several measures to address the issue of disingenuous agencies targeting people experiencing unplanned pregnancy, promoting awareness of MyOptions through Google search ads, targeted social media, out of home (OOH), radio and digital audio advertising,” he said.
He went on to describe the HSE’s strategy in detail, outlining how it monitors any competitors who wish to get to the top of search results – such as crisis pregnancy centres which want to promote a different approach than abortion.
“The My Options search ad campaign is performing extremely well and appears as the top ad or as the top organic search result for any related searches,” the Health Minister said.
He continued: “To help combat the promotion of disingenuous messaging, the HSE are monitoring any competitors and have set a bid management strategy to automatically increase their bids if another website appears ahead of theirs. The HSE monitor the search ad performance and that of disingenuous agencies on an on-going basis and share feedback with Google.”
FAILURE TO OFFER MEANINGFUL ALTERNATIVES
Research carried out by campaign group Students for Life Ireland, published last year, underlined what the pro-life group described as a clear pro-abortion bias.
The research, conducted between November 2021 and January 2022, cited evidence that the government’s MyOptions helpline routinely directed women towards abortion. It exposed a pattern where women were encouraged to book their first appointment with an abortion provider – even if the woman had told the helpline she was not sure if she wanted to have an abortion. Students for Life Ireland also expressed concern about a failure to offer meaningful alternatives to abortion.
To conduct the research, the group arranged for a series of phone calls to be made to the helpline. They said that it was “beyond question from the research carried out that MyOptions counsellors are not equipped to talk to clients about anything other than abortion”.
“Even when women don’t seek information about it, abortion is the first issue counsellors raise with women facing an unplanned pregnancy,” the group said.
Publishing the results, they said: “Shockingly, our research also shows that MyOptions counsellors repeatedly advise women to contact abortion providing GPs for their first consultation, even when women say they are unsure about whether to proceed with an abortion or not.
”These and other outrageous and unprofessional practises point to the need for major changes in how MyOptions operates and how public policy in the area of unplanned pregnancy is delivered.”
In February 2021, the HSE confirmed that €20 million in taxpayer funds had been spent on abortion provision in hospital and community settings since 2019.
The HSE detailed the huge spending on abortion in a written reply to a Parliamentary Question from Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.