MARRIED COUPLES facing crisis pregnancies should have the option to place their child for adoption, according to the Crisis Pregnancy Agency.
The agency also said that most people are waiting until the age of 17 for first sex, with 31 per cent of young men and 22 per cent of young women reporting they had sex before then.
It revealed that it is developing a "Delay First Sex" campaign in consultation with other organisations and state agencies.
"The vast majority of young people are not sexually active," said the agency's director, Caroline Spillane, and the campaign would link to young people having a "licence not to be sexually active or to be interested in sex in your teenage years".
Appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, Ms Spillane said the option of adoption for women facing crisis pregnancy was not legally available to married couples.
"We feel it is important for women and men who are married and experience crisis pregnancy [ to] have the opportunity to place their child for adoption if that was a decision in the best interests of the child."
Asked by Fianna Fáil Senator Marian Corrigan if the agency knew the likely extent of married couples seeking to place a child for adoption, Ms Spillane said: "We don't know is the answer. We have heard from service providers that for couples the reason could be a child they can't afford to have. They don't want to have an abortion and adoption is something they are thinking about. It's anecdotal and possible low numbers, but crisis pregnancy happens in marriage and the option should be available."
She told Fine Gael spokesman on children Alan Shatter that in many cases for married couples the crisis was linked to foetal abnormality, relationship breakdown or childrearing days being over and other commitments.
While most waited until they were 17 to have first sex a substantial minority under the age of consent were having sex. In 2006, there were 209 births to females aged 16 and under in Ireland. Some 31 per cent of males 16 and under were sexually active compared with 22 per cent of females.
"Those who had first sex under the age of 17 were significantly less likely to use contraception, more likely to experience crisis pregnancy later in life, more likely to report having sexually transmitted infections and more likely to regret that sex happened [ then]," policy officer Maeve O'Brien said.
