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June 13, 2004

Loony Fundie Plays Politics With Teenagers Lives

by Red Wolf

Australia: What sort of moron puts a loony fundie in charge of health decisions? Little Johnny Coward, of course. The repressed and moronic Tony Abbott, a staunch Catholic and firm believer in keeping women of all ages barefoot and pregnant, has stuck his fool neck out and demanded that the morning after pill be yanked from pharmacies and that teenagers health records no longer be subject to doctor-patient confidentiality.

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott wants to make the controversial morning-after pill a prescription-only drug, only six months after it was made available over the pharmacy counter.
Citing concern about media reports of 13-year-old girls requesting the emergency contraception, Mr Abbott said the obvious thing is simply to restore the situation that existed before the de-scheduling by the National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee.

Apparently Mr Abbott is quite happy for 13-year-old girls to be having babies. The bloody law was changed so kids like this could gain access to a drug that could help them instead of forcing them to hide a pregnancy then smother the baby behind the bike sheds. Gee, which is the preferable option.

I am by no means convinced that that was the right decision to make and I'm looking at what the Government can do to reconsider the matter, he said.
Guidelines recommending pharmacists counsel patients requesting the drug, called Postinor-2, were unrealistic, said Mr Abbott.
Not all pharmacists have a counselling room, so the counselling is inevitably going to take place over the counter, he said, not the same as a sit down, person-to-person counselling session.

It's worth noting that last weekend his propaganda machine fed a story to the tame press about some naughty pharmacists not taking counselling seriously. I'd be surprised if there were any verifiable facts in that little fairy tale.

Mr Abbott wanted to ensure that Postinor-2 was not just something that people go and take like they might take a vitamin tablet if they think they are getting sick.
Melbourne Sexual Health Centre director Kit Fairley said a reversal of the committee decision would be a tragedy and that requests from young teenagers showed non-prescription access to the drug was needed. An outcome of this will be more teenage pregnancies, which result in poorer health outcomes for children and mothers than delaying pregnancies until later on, Professor Fairley said. The drug was safer than aspirin, he said.
The bigger question is how can sex education programs ensure that there is no need for the morning-after pill — not once there is a need for it then taking it away.
About 1800 Victorian pharmacists from the state's 1200 pharmacies had already been trained in the protocols of selling the drug, said Pharmacy Guild of Victoria president Bill Scott.
If the pill became prescription-only again "we would be disappointed," he said. "However, it wasn't something that we asked for.
Australian Medical Association vice-president Mukesh Haikerwal said the initial de-scheduling had been problematic.
Subsidising Postinor-2 via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and funding extended consulting hours for sexual health centres were more desirable measures, he said.
The AMA did not support legislation to allow parents more access to young people's medical records. Dr Haikerwal said it would cast a big spanner in the works for the welfare and health of young people.
It shouldn't make a difference whether (the morning-after pill) is over-the-counter or prescription-only, he said. That information is something that is the business of that person regardless of their age.
Young patients would not consult doctors to discuss sexual health if they believed their health records would be revealed to a party who potentially caused some of the problems, Dr Haikerwal said.

Abbott's morning after pill backflip - The Age, 13th June 2004.
Pro-lifers back pill U-turn - The Weekend Australian, 13th June 2004.
Backbencher fears for teen lives - The Age, 13th June 2004.

Posted in Church and State at 06:57. Last modified on July 14 2009 at 16:45.
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