Research Project number 5, the CPA. (The Handmaids Tale)

by chris Murray - the unmanageables Thu Jun 08, 2006 20:57

Reminds me of the ten green bottles. Now it's ten sex-laws and the breezy balmy summer recess
is calling out to the government and opposition, who will come back in September or October
for a constitutional crisis; "Resign Minister mc Dowell", but why should he?
They all signed onto the script,
One amendment.
Section 5 , an absurdity ,but we will facilitate it through the Dail and Seanad because ,

by snowflake Thu Jun 08, 2006 17:08

please enter this info number into the record
+44 (0) 845 300 8090

now let's read the whole article again. & continue the debate & stay "on topic", too much of our national debate has been manipulated, the "crises" of 23/5 to 2/6 did not see a proper discussion of the health, educational, state support of families, socio-economic, cultural or ethnic dimensions of young people and sexual acts, nor did it open a debate on the role society and the state plays in deciding an age of consent, or ensuring the passage from immaturity to maturity serves the wellbeing of individuals and wider society.

http://indymedia.ie/article/76514

by chris murray - The Unmanageables Thu Jun 08, 2006 16:34

CPA is an example of the insidious ability of the offices of the State , (which signed the Church/State indemnity fund, releasing the religious from paying their full share of compensation to victims of Child sexual abuse, which obstructed the work of the Laffoy Commission on Child Abuse, leading to the resignation of Justice Mary Laffoy) to apply neo-liberal policies which are anti-woman to the lives of women, by creating structures which direct our control
over our fertility.

The Laffoy commission on Child sexual abuse was obstructed in its work after complaints of withheld information and lost files on the part of the Dept of Education and Children. The Minister for Education , who accepted her resignation had just taken over from Dr Michael woods , who signed the indemnity fund.

There is not much distance between the mandate of CURA and that of the CPA. The CPA is totally or to use a phrase , much abused last week, funded in toto by the offices of the State. It was incepted by Statutory implement in 2001. its work from 2003-2006 has benefited many people, I am sure. But it is not an NGO. and it doesn't do what it says on the tin.

CPA means Crisis Pregnancy Agency. If you google the site and look at the research documents, the make up of the board and
the consultancy firms which work under the aegis of the CPA you will see that it is an organisation which deals with sexuality and society as much or more so than it does the issue of crisis pregnancy. There are societal problems that have led to these structures being necessary. It is clear that the issue of choice in women's reproductive rights is mitigated for in a political organisation that is funded by the offices of the State.

I should have clarified at the beginning of the piece that it was written in the context of the Criminal Act(sexual offences)2006 legislation wherein the neo-liberal response to a case of sexual violence mitigates against the victims , by creating the absurdity of section 5 of the act. Further to that , in the context of section 5 and the criminalising of young women for all acts other than full penetrative sex and of young boys for under-age consensual sex
has created a scenario wherein government interference in
private expression is an acceptable norm. I wanted to show that
this agency exists and what it does.

The issue of CURA is not one I have investigated, though I do know that they were providing post-abortion counselling in Tralee ten years ago, and I wonder when that changed...

We regect church interference in our private morality but we open ourselves to State interference.
* The passage of the Criminal Law (sexual offences )legislation
unimpeded in the Dail Last week.
*Criminalising young women and men for sexual offences was unimpeded during its passage thru the Dail last week.
Neo-liberal response to the question of a constitutional challenge was buried under the sex law legislation creating a norm for government intereference in matters of personal choice. the same government who obstructed Laffoy and indemified the church for the minimum required compensation for people who suffered greatly under the sexual mores of the Church/state alliance in the past. The dogmatic church is as alive as it was in the era of the Magadalene laundries and we are collusive in re-creating those societal mores which created the problem in the first place.

by pat c Thu Jun 08, 2006 13:40

Chris, CURA is an anti choice agency. Part of its service leval agreement with the CPA is that it is supposed to distribute a leaflet which gives the names & details of 12 agencies, including those who will give advice on abortion referral. CURA are refusing to distribute this leaflet.

CURA is reducing the choice available to women.