100 under-age girls contact helpline for abortion services

Under 17s made calls to HSE for support over pregnancy

- EOGHAN MURPHY

ALMOST 100 children called a crisis-pregnancy helpline that provides information on abortion services last year.

They were among 11,551 contacts to the HSE's My Options service, which also provides information on continued pregnancy supports.

There was a big surge in messages in 2022, which increased by 20%, from 9,651 in 2021.

A total of 91 of last year's calls related to under 17s, details released to the Irish Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act revealed.

Dr Madeleine Ni Dhalaigh, a member of the Irish Medical Organisation's GP committee, said My Options is a great service.

She added: "When someone gets a positive pregnancy test and it's unplanned and they want to consider a termination of pregnancy, very often their first port of call will be My Options.