Adolescent Pregnancy in Ireland (Eire): Medical, Psychosocial, and Public Health Responses

Abstract

In this chapter, we begin to put into context the role of women’s reproductive rights, the Irish Catholic Church and its influence on politics in Ireland; and, how it has impacted female reproductive health in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Context is essential because contrary to the experience of other countries where the Roman Catholic Church dominates sexual reproductive and sexual health policy (i.e., countries in South America). To put Irish adolescent pregnancy in perspective, keeping in mind that abortion continued to be illegal in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, in 1970s the adolescent birth rate dropped to 16.3 births per 1,000. Although fluctuating slightly over the years, the adolescent birth rate was again 16.3 births per 1,000 in 2009. This is a rate that is slightly higher than the average for European countries. Yet, it is lower than that of Northern Ireland and the UK at 25 births per 1,000. In contrast, in the USA in 2009, the adolescent birth rate was over 40 births per 1,000. This relatively low rate of Irish adolescent pregnancy is diametrically opposed to what would be expected in a traditional Catholic country like Ireland. Why the adolescent pregnancy rates fail, and how the history of Irish Catholic ideology affect Irish adolescents in the twenty-first century is examined in this chapter? Instead of church doctrine continuing to influence high rates of fertility and resistance to the use of contraception, especially among the youth of Ireland, the rate of pregnancy and birth dropped significantly. Moreover, with the economic change in the 1990s, in less than one generation, adolescent life was transformed from the traditional Irish Catholic existence to a more modern lifestyle common to adolescents in most Western European countries.