"You have to say no, to be safe"

Herald Sun (Australia)
Babette Francis, National & Overseas Co-ordinator, Endeavour Forum Inc.
June 29, 2004



Poor Tony Abbott - little did he realise what a hornet's nest he was stirring up - actually a nest of Queen Bee wasps - when he suggested that all was not perfect in Australia with the high incidence of abortion, the provision of the morning after pill to teenagers and concealment of their medical records from parents.

Commentators have made gratuitous references to the "mistake" Tony made conceiving a child out of wedlock when he was nineteen, but he has been given no credit for not compounding the mistake by aborting the child. Abbott Jr. was given a chance at life with all its joys and challenges.

In the debate over the Health Minister's efforts to give parents access to their children's health records or to make the Morning After Pill a prescription item, the notion of the imperfect parent is replaced by the myth of the perfect doctor and the perfect pharmacist.

While adult Victorians complain they cannot get an appointment with any doctor because their appointment books are closed, Dr. Mal Washer MP (Liberal), promotes the myth of friendly family doctors, patiently sitting in clinics out of hours, waiting to counsel troubled teens. Even if there were such real-life paragons as Marcus Welby MD, there is little a doctor can do to protect a 15-year-old girl from the consequences of sex with multiple partners - and if she starts sexual activity at 15 there will inevitably be multiple partners - unless the doctor reinforces what responsible parents would tell her - "Say No, be abstinent until marriage".

If a doctor condones the teen's proposed sexual activity by providing condoms or the pill, will he tell her that neither are a protection from incurable sexually transmitted diseases such as genital herpes or human papilloma virus (genital warts) which is responsible for nearly all cervical cancer?

Will doctors tell teens that Barr Labs which owns Plan B could not produce studies proving the morning after pill is safe for adolescents? Will teens be informed that sometimes this pill acts as an abortifacient and not a contraceptive? Will doctors tell teens that in countries where the morning after pill is easily available, the incidence of STDs has skyrocketed?

According to the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, Britain is facing a sexual health crisis. 10% of young people are thought to be infected with chlamydia and the HIV rate has increased by over 20% for the second year running. By contrast, in Uganda the ABC approach encouraging abstinence and behaviour change has resulted in a nationwide change in sexual behaviour and a steep reduction in the HIV rate. [The Times, 17/2/04]

Latest Queen Bee into the fray is Professor Doreen Rosenthal, Director, Key Centre for Women's Health in Society, Melbourne University, who in a lecture on 22nd June, castigated not only Tony Abbott, but also deplores President George Bush's funding of abstinence programs. She approves Australia's sex education programs, which, she claims, enable young people to "make informed choices, such as postponing the first sexual intercourse." But isn't that abstinence?

Washer and Rosenthal talk about the "dangers" to teens if parents have access to their medical records, but not about dangers to the teen who evades the authority of her parents, is exploited by "boyfriends," descends into a downward spiral of promiscuous sexual activity, is mocked by previous partners who label her as "easy," and who catches an incurable STD or blocked fallopian tubes because of chlamydia infection. Who appointed Washer and Rosenthal in loco parentis anyway? Will they be there when the teenager is crying because the boy who said he would love her forever dumps her but she realises she has herpes - forever?

For those who refuse to concede any health or moral concerns, why restrict the morning after pill to sales at pharmacies? Why not distribute them at school tuck shops - or perhaps even the lollipop lady at the school crossing could hand them out every morning just in case.....