Member Associations

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) was founded in 1969. Since then, the organization has been a pioneering force in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Ireland, as an educator, a researcher, opinion former and service provider. The IFPA worked for years for the removal of the constitutional ban on abortion and, since 2019, proudly provides early abortion care among its services. In its early days, when contraception was illegal, the organization opened Ireland’s first family planning clinics. It helped establish sex education programmes in schools and set up Ireland’s first confidential sex helpline for young people. The organization provides specialist training in contraception for healthcare professionals, and on sexual health for community groups, young people and parents. The IFPA has 2 clinics in Dublin and 10 pregnancy counselling centres nationwide. It operates Ireland’s only community based FGM treatment clinic. The IFPA works for the fulfilment of the rights to respect for reproductive autonomy and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a particular focus on the SRHR of adolescents, young people and vulnerable or disadvantaged groups. Current priorities include: universal free access to contraception, improved sexuality education within school curricula and the removal of the remaining barriers to access to abortion care.

Created in 1965, APROFA is a non-profit public interest organization with more than 50 years of experience in the defense of sexual and reproductive rights of all people. They provide sexual health care with a gender perspective and a rights-based approach that facilitates access and information on safe and effective contraceptive methods, allowing people to make decisions in tune with their lifestyles and thus avoid unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, prevent situations of gender-based violence and all those possibilities that come with the lack of information. They have developed a line of education, generating awareness and training activities for the educational community in general, families and health professionals, with the purpose that more people are trained in Comprehensive Sexuality Education and thus children and young people receive the tools and skills to live a life free of violence, without gender stereotypes, have negotiation strategies and inhabit the consent. They aspire to a world where all people are free to decide; free to seek a healthy and responsible sexual life; and a world where gender, gender identity and sexuality are free.