THE Catholic Church crisis pregnancy agency Cura has revealed that it will close tomorrow due to a decrease in "service demands."
The organisation that assists women in dealing with pregnancy, formally told bishops of the plans to close, after 41 years of providing free unplanned pregnancy support and counselling
In a statement, Cura said: "Today there are 14 various services, operating in a new regulatory environment with changing counselling quality standards compliance requirements.
"In this new and changed environment we have been experiencing decreasing service demands in line with national trends and we feel this decision, which has been considered carefully for a number of years, is now the correct one."
Cura's announcement is as a result of a strategic planning progress which has been ongoing since 2015.
The decision comes a month after the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) cut ties with the agency, claiming that Cura fails to provide ‘full support’ for pregnant people regarding abortion and abortion support.
Cura, which employed two full time and 14 part time staff, first opened in 1977.
Since 1996, it has conducted over 163,000 face-to-face and telephone counselling sessions with clients.
Cura advises anyone now requiring access to support services, to seek advice from providers operating under the Health Service Executive's Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme.
