Are parents ready for detailed discussion in schools of contraception? Are they ready for teachers to show students how to use it? Because that's what's going to happen if Olive Braiden, the head of the new Crisis Pregnancy Agency, has her way.
Will workplaces change their attitudes and start supporting women in crisis pregnancy? Braiden says they must. And is the Government ready to vastly increase funding for mothers in crisis pregnancy, including increasing spending on living, housing and childcare? Now that's a question.
When Braiden left her job as chief executive of the Rape Crisis Centre earlier this year, she intended "to wallow". That didn't last long. Braiden adds her new post to a portfolio of appointments, including to the Human Rights Commission, the Family Law Commission and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.
The Crisis Pregnancy Agency will not provide a service to people in the throes of crisis pregnancy, as the Taoiseach's earlier statements might have led us to believe. Braiden defines it as an umbrella organisation that will encompass all the arms of State that currently deal with crisis pregnancy, as well as voluntary family-planning and crisis-pregnancy services funded by the Eastern Regional Health Authority to the tune of £750,000 per year. The Irish Family Planning Association, the Well Woman Centre, Cura, Cherish, Life Ireland and Pact will also be represented - although this comes as news to them. Only when The Irish Times rang them did they become aware that their views would be sought.
Senator Helen Keogh, the Well Woman Centre's chairwoman, expresses the thoughts of many when she says that while Braiden is highly respected, the Taoiseach's surprise announcement of the agency, in concert with the new abortion referendum, "seems like a sop" - although, as Keogh and others acknowledge, if anyone can give the Crisis Pregnancy Agency teeth, Braiden can. She likes being in the hot seat. "Where else would I be?" she asks.
So what's Braiden's agenda? "To get an overall strategy that will look at all the work that is being done in every agency and to have all the groups working together to regulate the work of all the agencies," she says.
The goal will be a reduction in the number of crisis pregnancies. Braiden wants to get schools involved and to educate parents to educate their children and "talk openly" with them. She wants to see practical advice about contraception given to children in schools, although she will consult others about the age at which this advice should be introduced.
"Eleven- and 12-year-olds are having sex," she says. " 'Meeting' a boy is defined as giving him a blow job, and these girls don't even regard it as sex. They don't understand it."
Taking research at Trinity College, Dublin, as the basis of her brief, she describes as very worrying the "significant number of women in crisis pregnancy who lacked any information about pregnancy and did not know where to get the information."
The agency, which as yet has no offices or phone, will also address the "serious social stigma" of unplanned pregnancy outside marriage. "Many women feel attacked in the eyes of other women, and would not get the support they needed," says Braiden.
Then there are the fathers who too often "get off scot-free" because, according to the Trinity study, men don't see pregnancy as their responsibility. Some women didn't use contraception because their boyfriends didn't like it. So the agency will promote responsible sex among men. Asked if men, who sometimes feel women are having abortions without their consent, will be represented in the agency, Braiden laughs. But if they want to put in a proposal, they'll be considered. One-third of women who have abortions don't choose the counselling route. They just get on the phone and book an abortion in Britain without talking it over with anybody. "That's very worrying," says Braiden. "Post-abortion counselling and medical check-ups will be made available.
Part of the agency's brief is to change the culture of secrecy and to promote a positive image of lone parents." The partners, parents and colleagues of women in crisis pregnancy will have their attitudes challenged by the agency, she hopes. "It's such a tragic thing for so many to worry about the life of a baby, but what underlies everything is, what choice have women got? Women make the decision according to all the roles they play - education, accommodation and childcare are all factors.
"We need to be more supportive economically and ensure that everybody knows what the services are, so that we can offer a positive alternative to abortion. We need to build up a culture of care, service and compassion. We don't have a caring culture. We are very critical of lone parents."
The agency will be lobbying the Government for higher spending not just on practical supports, but also for the voluntary crisis-pregnancy-counselling organisations. The agency will be "very critical of the way it has dealt with the problem up to now", says Braiden. So if the Taoiseach did indeed think the agency would be "a sop", he'd better think again.