An 'Irish' solution:

...An Association spokesman said that the clinics provided the only training for doctors in family planning methods: some one hundred and twenty general practitioners have so far been trained in the techniques...

...Family planning clinics are allowed to operate an informational, advisory, and consultation service only with the Minister's consent, except for those clinics providing a "natural family planning service'' only...

...Importers of contraceptives must obtain annual licenses from the Minister for Health...

...It will be three or four months before the workability of new regulations is established...

...But it was ignored in practice, at least as far as the import of contraceptives in sufficient numbers for personal use was concerned...

...A few weeks later, however, it was reported that most doctors and eighty percent of chemists had indicated their agreement to operate under the new regulations...

...What he overlooked was that the word "Irish" sometimes has an unflattering connotation - meaning "bungled," "inappropriate," "straining credulity...

...They added that doctors must put the integrity of their conscience before any other consideration: "with confidence in theit high sense of responsibility, we ask them to give a clear witness to their opposition to contraceptive practices...

...The parliamentary moves to remove the prohibition on the sale of contraceptives became necessary in 1973 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a married woman, advised against further pregnancies, who pleaded that it .was unconstitutional to deprive her of the right to import contraceptives for her own use...

...The fact that doctors can charge four to five pounds ($8-$ 10) per prescription and chemists have a mark-up of fifty to seventy percent on sales may have influenced their attitude...

...Meantime, family planning clinics had been established in main cities and towns...

...Addressing doctors and chemists, the bishops said that cooperation in the wrong act of another is generally unlawful and that "prescribing or supplying material for contraceptive purposes is clearly a form of cooperation...

...AN IRISH solution to an Irish problem'' was how a former Irish Health Minister described a bill intro- duced in Dail Eireann (the lower House of the Irish Parliament) to legalize the sale of contraceptives...

...Prescriptions must be for a maximum of one year and may be dispensed only by a pharmaceutical chemist who keeps open shop for dispensing prescriptions...

...Charles J. Haughey, has been Taoiseach (Prime Minister) since December 1979...

...Intra-uterine devices are banned because they are judged to be abortifacients...

...For seven years, an anomalous situation obtained...

...Some groups such as pro-contraception organizations and university students' organizations are defying the law by selling contraceptives direct and the Irish Family Planning Association is considering a court challenge to the new law's constitutionality...

...In a statement cbinciding with the introduction of the new regulations, the Catholic bishops said that' 'no state legislation can alter this moral teaching" that contraceptive intercourse is contrary to God's design...

...Cahal Daly, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, said that if there was moral pressure on doctors, it was created by the moral law and not by the bishops...

...Advertising for family planning services will be permitted, but not for actual contraceptive devices or products...

...The Minister, Mr...

...The indications are, however, that the bill's aim was to produce legislation which, despite its "Irish" character, would be initially accepted by Parliament and people in the belief that once in force the operation of the law would become more liberal in practice...

...These supplied advice and also provided contraceptives of all kinds in return for The new legislation provides that contraceptives can be sold on a doctor's prescription only for bona fide family planning purposes-a genuflection in the direction of confining them to married persons only...

...The political parties, however, ducked the issue because of the Catholic church's opposition, the hierarchy having opposed the legislation, predicting that the contraceptive mentality would inevitably lead to divorce, abortion, and euthanasia...

...The law forbidding the import and sale of contraceptives remained on the statute books, even though it had been declared unconstitutional...

...A public opinion survey, issued around the same time, showed that' sixty-four percent of Irish women favored making contraceptives available, though thirty-nine percent wanted them restricted to married couples...

...There was panic buying of contraceptives in the week before the new regulations came into effect...

...It is to these clinics that the Regional Health Boards refer doctors and nurses for training and if the clinics have to close for lack of revenue, the only training facility will disappear...

...His bill was enacted in 1979 and the regulations implementing it came into effect on November 1 last...

...DESMOND FISHER (Desmond Fisher reports regularly from Ireland...

...One of the most controversial clauses is that providing that family planning clinics will be able to sell contraceptives only if they employ a dispensing chemist, thus depriving them of the revenue, especially from mail orders, which enabled them to operate...

...Other clinics must prove they provide advice on natural methods before they are given ministerial consent...

...He meant, of course, that circumstances in Ireland necessitated a particular approach to changing the previous law prohibiting the importation, display, or sale of contraceptives...

...At first, there were forecasts that a majority of doctors and fifty to eighty percent of chemists would follow the bishops' line and refuse to prescribe or supply contraceptives...

...At the same time, reports circulated that members of branches of the Knights of Columbanus, a conservative lay Catholic movement, were bringing pressure on local doctors, nurses, and chemists to refuse to operate the new legislation, and Dr...

...No licenses will be given to clinics providing an abortion referral service...

...This, indeed, may be the real "Irish" character of the new regulations...