Adoption scandal man is Dáil candidate

Adoption scandal man is Dáil candidate

by Carl O’BrienTHE founder of the pregnancy advice agency at the centre of an illegal adoption storm is running as an independent by election candidate in Dublin South Central.
The candidate is the founder and proprietor of the Aadam’s pregnancy advice centre. He unlawfully adopted a four day old baby from a college student who had sought advice on her crisis pregnancy from the Aadams Agency.
In the High Court in August, Justice Laffoy ruled that the man could not be named, in order to prevent the mother and baby from being identified. This man is now seeking election to the Dáil.
This man is also involved in another crisis pregnancy advice centre called WCN International.
The High Court ruled that the man had unlawfully adopted the child, after the mother’s family handed the baby to the man four days after her birth this summer. However, the baby was later brought into the Eastern Health Board’s care. A High Court action was subsequently brought by the Board against the man.
He was found to have failed to show that the young mother’s decision to give up her baby for adoption by him and his wife was a free decision.
In her ruling, Justice Laffoy said: “It is hard to imagine a more glaring situation of conflict of interest than one in which a person who assumes the role of counsellor and advisor to a young girl in the latter stages of a crisis pregnancy proposes himself and his wife as prospective adoptive parents of the baby and proposes taking custody of the baby within days.”
It was reported earlier this year that the founder was under investigation by the Garda relating to possible breaches of the 1998 Adoption Act, and a file was being prepared for the DPP.
The man at the centre of the controversy is a prominent pro life activist who also ran for the European Parliament elections in 1994. He polled highly in the Dublin constituency, outperforming Fine Gael candidate Olive Braden.
He later set up Aadams’ pregnancy advice centres on Dublin’s northside and in Cork city. The Cork agency shut down last month after the controversy erupted. The Dublin agency is estimated to have dealt with 2,000 women since it was founded in 1995.
According to his literature for the Dublin South Central by election, he is the founder of another pregnancy advice centre called MGN, which is affiliated with other agencies internationally.
Pro choice groups and pregnancy counselling centres reacted angrily yesterday to the news that he had set up another agency.
“I didn’t think he’d have the cheek to run so soon after being exposed. I think the question should also be asked as to who is supporting this man? Are the same groups who supported him in the first place still backing him?,” a spokeswoman for the Dublin Abortion Rights Group asked yesterday.
When contacted last night, the man declined to speak of any link with the Aadams Agency and said he was recording the telephone call.
He said one of the issues on which he was fighting the by election was seeking the resignation of Health Minister Brian Cowen, claiming the Midlands TD had been responsible for many deaths by allowing access to abortion.
He also refuted the suggestion that State funded pregnancy advice agencies were offering non directive advice to women.
“What is non directive counselling anyway? Eighty three percent of women who go the Irish Family Planning Association have an abortion. We have 83% who don’t,” he said.