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President's pen Genuine inclusion key to successful
Brendon and Kim at this year's Unforgetaball.
President's pen
By Kim Porthouse
Isn’t it great to be into spring with longer days and warmer temperatures. Brendon and I have just returned from a lovely sunny weekend in Christchurch where along with visiting family, we took the opportunity to attend the Unforgetaball, an event that has been organised by two local Canterbury mums – Linda te Kaat and Tania Grose for over 10 years. Brendon and I had a fabulous time and it was delightful to see everyone dressed up in their finest, having such a wonderful time dancing and socialising. I would like to express my thanks to Linda and Tania for their ongoing commitment to this event, I know it takes a significant amount of time and effort to organise it. The ball is an obvious highlight for the local Down syndrome community. If you have ever considered organising something similar in your local community I say find a way to make it happen, it will be so rewarding! As many of you will be aware the government has before it the Abortion Law Reform Bill. A few weeks ago I did an interview on Radio New Zealand in relation to the NZDSA’s position in response to media statements by Saving Downs that Jacinda Ardern had gone back on her pre-election promises to the disability community not to increase
the time limit for disability-selective abortion. Whilst we share concerns over the impact of prenatal screening on the birth rate of people with Down syndrome, the NZDSA felt they needed to highlight different issues than those raised by Saving Downs and I attempted to concentrate on our advocacy position that women should receive value based counselling when considering screening or termination based on a diagnosis of Down syndrome. The NZDSA distinguishes itself from Saving Downs as an organisation that represents the views of the wider Down syndrome community across a number of issues including health, education and human rights. The NZDSA primarily is an organisation set up to provide support and information and has also evolved to have an advocacy role. We want to be recognised as the authoritative voice in NZ on issues that concern people with Down syndrome and speak from a well-considered and balanced platform. We also work to raise awareness of the rights of people with Down syndrome to be recognised as contributing members of society with a voice that should be listened to by those making policies on issues that concern them. As the Abortion Law Reform Bill is currently going through Parliament the NZDSA committee discussed the relevance of the bill to the Down syndrome community at our recent meeting. After considering the issues the committee felt that the changes in the bill have the potential to impact termination rates based on a diagnosis of Down syndrome, and set up a subcommittee to examine the new reforms to make a submission to Government. For your information I have outlined changes in the Abortion Law Reform Bill that we consider relevant to our community. Firstly let me state that the NZDSA does not take a position on the rights of women to terminate a genuinely unwanted pregnancy. We recognise the fact that abortions do and will continue to take place in New Zealand and that under New Zealand law, women have rights to make choices relating to health services. We do however want to raise concerns that as a result of prenatal screening, terminations of otherwise wanted pregnancies take place due to a diagnosis of Down syndrome. Current abortion legislation requires two practitioners to be satisfied that an abortion is required to maintain the pregnant woman’s physical and mental health and well-being. The proposed changes mean that a woman can refer herself for an abortion without the need to see any other doctor other than the health practitioner performing the abortion up till 20 weeks gestation. She can also still seek and obtain an abortion after 20 weeks provided that one registered health practitioner signs it off on well-being grounds. This has the potential for late-term abortions to occur at any gestation, including late-term abortion on the grounds of disability. Under New Zealand law, when providing health services, a health practitioner is required to ensure the woman makes an informed choice and gives informed consent. This will still be a provision for health practitioners providing abortion. The new legislation only provides that a health practitioner must advise a woman about the availability of counselling services if she seeks advice or information about whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy; or wishes to terminate a pregnancy.
The focus of our submission will be in line with our position statement on termination i.e.
We will express concern over the removal of the requirement for consultation with a health professional prior to 20 weeks gestation and seek to have this gestational limit reduced should reform go ahead. We will also seek to see a gestational limit put in place for abortion to take place and will advocate that any viable gestation should not be aborted on the grounds of disability, especially Down syndrome. In addition we will strongly advocate for mandatory counselling for a pregnant woman considering termination due to a diagnosis of disability, so that the process of giving informed consent can be upheld. If a woman rushes into a decision to terminate she can later have feelings of regret and guilt which negatively impact her mental health and well-being. We would strongly recommend that the counselling should have a value-based component and women must be given information on how to make contact with disability support organisations such as the NZDSA.
