Founder of La Leche League resigns over ‘breastfeeding men’| Milli Hill

Today a letter from one of the founders of LLL, Marian Tompson, was circulated to members of the organisation, some of whom have passed it to me. Seven women founded La Leche League in 1954, and Marian Tompson was one of them.

As far as I know, only two of them are still alive, and Marian is the only one of those two who have remained actively involved in LLL. Now she has resigned, stating that the organisation has become ‘a travesty of her original intent’, by ‘subtly shifting to include men who…want to have the experience of breastfeeding’.

Source: (5) Founder of La Leche League resigns over ‘breastfeeding men’.

Men buying babies: The great surrogacy con | Julie Bindel

On 3rd January 2019, a law was passed in the UK allowing single men to become the legal parents of children conceived through surrogacy.

And there is no legal upper age limit – shockingly, anyone aged 18-99+ can acquire a baby via surrogacy and apply for a parental order, which means the baby is legally theirs and not the woman who carried the baby and gave birth.

In the UK, where commercial surrogacy is banned but international imports are not, between 400 and 500 new surrogate-incubated babies are now registered each year.

Many single and older men are now buying a baby via surrogacy: since 2019, as many as 95 parental orders for surrogacy in England and Wales have been issued to single men. In the past five years, almost 300 men aged 50+ have applied to become the legal father of a surrogate child – and 43 of these are over 60. This summer, a 72-year-old man in Scotland got a parental order for a three-year-old boy born to a surrogate mother in the US in 2020.

And there are shocking examples of men buying babies to satisfy their depraved sexual desires, for example, a man in Australian who abused his surrogate born twin daughters and was subsequently jailed for 22 years. Surrogacy is enabling child abusers to buy babies. You may recall the Baby Gammy scandal back in 2014. David John Farnell, 56, and his wife abandoned their baby son Gammy, who has Down syndrome and a congenital heart condition, leaving him with the Thai surrogate mother. The couple brought Gammy’s healthy twin sister home, but it was later revealed that Mr Farnell has 22 child sex convictions, some going back to his twenties.

Source: Men buying babies: The great surrogacy con

BOOK EXTRACT: Flip Through My Flaps by Ellie Sedgwick.

At nineteen, I started researching labiaplasty, a surgical procedure that alters the labia minora and/or labia majora. I took the plunge a year later and booked two consultations in Sydney, Australia. Still, I am filled with rage when I reflect on these experiences. Both surgeons were more than happy to slice into my vulva without even seeing what she looked like. There was no discussion of my mental health, self-esteem, and whether I had consulted a therapist for my body insecurities. All these surgeons saw was a dollar sign on my forehead. It’s no surprise that labiaplasty is the fastest-growing cosmetic procedure among young Australians.

I couldn’t afford the surgery at the time, but that didn’t stop me. When I moved to India a year later, I decided it was the perfect place to have labiaplasty as no one would notice my recovery.

He asked me to take off my undies and show him my vulva. So, I did. As he looked at my vulva, he said the words that eventually led me to create Comfortable in My Skin:

“Ellie, Madam, have you ever seen another vulva?”

He explained that what I was asking to have surgically altered was a completely normal vulva, adding that vulvas are all unique and often different to what is portrayed in porn, movies and magazines.

He encouraged me to research what vulvas look like – homework I took very seriously, as I went on to photograph more than 500 of them!

The aim is to show how unique and beautiful each vulva is and shift the narrative from one of secrecy and taboo to openness and acceptance.

I hope this book acts as a resource to help people accept themselves, rather than go under the knife.

Source: BOOK EXTRACT: Flip Through My Flaps by Ellie Sedgwick.

Orange Hospital directs staff to no longer provide abortions to patients without ‘early pregnancy complications’ – ABC News

An explicit ban on abortions for non-medical reasons has been laid down by the executive of a regional New South Wales public hospital, the ABC can reveal.

A leaked document shows that staff at Orange Health Service in Central West NSW can no longer provide abortions for patients with “no identified pregnancy complications”.

Multiple sources from within and outside the hospital have told the ABC that both medical and surgical terminations — a legal form of health care — were previously provided regardless of circumstance.

Staff members have told the ABC they have been forced to turn away women seeking terminations.

According to the new policy document, Orange Hospital staff must now refer all patients wanting terminations for non-medical reasons to GPs, or “seek advice” from Family Planning NSW on the closest service provider.

The nearest Family Planning clinic is almost 2 hours away, does not provide surgical terminations and does not open on weekends.

Equitable access to abortion care was a key focus of the Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive health care.

In its final report, delivered last year, it recommended that “all public hospitals within Australia be equipped to provide surgical pregnancy terminations, or timely and affordable pathways to other local providers” to improve equality of access, “particularly in rural and regional areas”.

Only two public hospitals in NSW offer formal termination services for patients within their catchment areas: the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney and John Hunter in Newcastle.

Kirsten Black, from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), said complex, costly and obstructed referral pathways meant women often presented later in pregnancy for abortions.

“And the later you are in pregnancy, the more you reduce your choice, so if you’re beyond nine weeks you can’t access medical abortions in the community. And as the gestation increases, then the risk of complications increases, so increased risk of bleeding, of damage to the uterus,” she said.

Source: Orange Hospital directs staff to no longer provide abortions to patients without ‘early pregnancy complications’ – ABC News

Vanessa was ‘kidnapped’ by the family policing system aged 10. Now, she’s fighting for other First Nations families | The Conversation

Her memoir, Long Yarn Short, imprinted on my mind and heart. In a warm, inviting voice, this proud Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul woman paints an unflinchingly honest picture of her life as a child stolen by the state, at just ten years old, in the mid-2000s. She describes being “tucked up in bed” by her dad and “about to close [her] eyes” when it happened.

“There was no reason why Mum could not take me,” Turnbull-Roberts writes. Her mother’s mental illness had been “used against her to justify the removal” of the first of her three children, Turnbull-Roberts’ eldest brother. Since Turnbull-Roberts was conceived, her mother had feared her being taken as well. “In my world, she was my mum, my everything,” Turnbull-Roberts writes.

She chooses her words carefully and poignantly, never buying into the euphemisms and lies of a system built to destroy her connection to kin and culture. They aren’t “case workers”, they are “kidnappers”. They aren’t “removing” her, they are “kidnapping”.

As I read, Turnbull-Roberts never let me forget she was ripped away from community, family and warmth, to be neglected and abused by a system that proclaimed it saved her from neglect and abuse.

While Turnbull-Roberts educates readers about the racist foundations these institutions are built on, the book never becomes dry or academic. Instead, she personalises these facts, showing how pathologising Indigenous parenting and culture results in unfair judgements of neglect and abuse. She points out: “if a kid from a wealthy family has dirty clothes, they had a fun day; however if a child from a poor family has dirty clothes, they must be neglected.”

She also describes some of her foster carers taking children for the payments they bring.

At the same time, the system unfairly judges people like her parents. First Nations culture, mental health issues and poverty struggles are all deemed “failures” that families must be punished for.

Turnbull-Roberts highlights our society’s thirst for punitive measures when anyone we deem “less than” struggles. Her book is a chilling reality check on our skewed view of “justice” and “support”.

Source: Vanessa was ‘kidnapped’ by the family policing system aged 10. Now, she’s fighting for other First Nations families

Mothers to take DWP to court over ‘inhumane’ benefit rules on non-consensual conception | Universal credit | The Guardian |UK

High court approves judicial review of rules denying some women exception to two-child limit on universal credit.

Two mothers who had children as a result of rape or coercion by former partners have been given permission to take the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to court for being denied exception to the two-child limit on universal credit.

The limit, which restricts support through universal credit (UC) to the first two children in a family, has an exception when a child has been conceived non-consensually, but this only applies to third or subsequent children in a household.

One of the mothers granted permission by the high court to bring a judicial review challenging the UK-wide rules said: “If I had been raped after my first two children were born, the exceptions would be applied, so basically [the DWP ministers] are telling me that I was raped at the wrong time.”

Source: Mothers to take DWP to court over ‘inhumane’ benefit rules on non-consensual conception | Universal credit | The Guardian

‘Precious, princess’: Health minister warns GPs to brace for women’s pain inquiry findings | The Age

Victorian health minister Mary-Anne Thomas is warning doctors to brace themselves for the results of Australia’s first inquiry into women’s pain, saying it revealed “a misogynist view that pain is part of women’s burden”.
Thomas said she was shocked to learn what more than 13,000 women and girls who shared stories with the inquiry experienced, and that many had serious pain dismissed or had been “gaslit” by being told they had mental health issues.
Women testified saying things such as, “I just want to get off the merry-go-round of antidepressants and iron infusions” prescribed for pain.
Thomas said some women felt they were treated as drug addicts when they asked for relief. She was challenged by researchers for suggesting misogyny may be a factor the gender-pain gap.
In its submission to the 11-month inquiry, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation included incidents of health workers having their own pain treated dismissively and witnessing women receiving gender-biased treatment.
It received more than 800 responses in four days to a member survey on women’s pain.
Of 89 per cent of nurses and midwives who had experienced acute pain, two-thirds felt “dismissed by health professionals”, and 53 per cent said the response was negative.
A nurse on a mixed specialty surgical ward said gynaecology patients who describe “10/10 pain” were given paracetamol as a first-line treatment to “wait and see if it helps”, while other surgical patients “are given two to three lines of analgesia charted immediately at any instance of pain”.
Another told of “multiple colleagues judging young female patients’ subjective pain scores, calling them ‘precious’, ‘princess’ or ‘overreacting’.”
The inquiry is due to hand its recommendations to the Victorian Women’s Health Advisory Council by December and will be released in early 2025.

Source: ‘Precious, princess’: Health minister warns GPs to brace for women’s pain inquiry findings

Left in the dark: examining Australian adoptions from South Korea – Law Society Journal

Thousands of South Korean children were adopted by Australian families under false pretences, according to investigations by both the Associated Press and the ABC. The agency responsible for facilitating adoptions since 1978, Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS), allegedly claimed children were orphans when, in reality, those children were received from hospital workers who had been bribed by the agency.

Many of the 3,600 adoptees, now aged in their thirties, had unusually similar case files: born to a single mother, and orphaned. In interviews with the ABC, adult adoptees said their own research had proven their biological parents were alive and had been misled in some cases into believing their child would be adopted by a Korean family. South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is now investigating hundreds of adoptee cases and has already confirmed an extensive campaign of deceptive falsification of documents. Australia has not launched an official investigation.

In August, Senator Linda Reynolds called for a broader parliamentary inquiry into intercountry adoption practices, seeking a stop to all international adoptions until more comprehensive safeguards are in place to prevent “trafficking” of orphans.

Professor Cuthbert says, “To its shame, South Korea has relied on ICA [Intercountry Adoption] to avoid providing social services and support for single mothers and their children. Due to the shame and stigma of pregnancy outside of marriage, and a desire to avoid the costs to the state of providing for these mothers and their children, South Korea effectively sanctioned the removal of these children for adoption and there were many bad actors in this space – several ‘charitable’ and church-aligned organisations operated effectively as baby brokers or traffickers. Many so-called orphanages were used by local people as places to leave their children on a temporary basis during times of economic duress and they has no understanding that by so doing they were effectively relinquishing their children who then were classified as ‘orphans’ and available for adoption.”

Source: Left in the dark: examining Australian adoptions from South Korea – Law Society Journal

The everyday Australians working with HRLA to fight back | HRLA

As the work of HRLA continues to increase, we had the opportunity to gather last week to host an Alliance Event in Melbourne.

Child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer shared about her ongoing action against the Queensland Children’s Hospital. She spoke about some of the harmful practices she has witnessed in her work with children, why she has risked her career by standing up against the affirmation model and her thoughts on the vulnerability of gender confused children and the obligation for responsible adults to advocate for them.

Dr Jereth Kok, a GP of more than 15 years, spoke about the impact of being suspended for five years from his GP practice and the way this has affected his family financially and mentally He also spoke about why the legal challenge of his suspension is so important for freedom of speech in Australia.

Breastfeeding expert Jasmine Sussex shared about why she became a breastfeeding counsellor, the importance of this role for new mothers, and the consequences of opposing the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s new positions on gender ideology. HRLA is helping Jasmine to defend herself from a vilification claim brought by a transgender-identifying man after sharing her view that men cannot breastfeed, and that the practice of men inducing breastfeeding to affirm their gender identities is cruel and unethical.

Mel Jefferies is one of the growing number of vulnerable young Australians who regrets her attempt to alter her body via hormones and surgery for gender affirmation. Mel bravely spoke about her struggles as a teenager, her experience of major transition surgery, the harms of activist-led health care, and the chilling impact Victoria’s Conversion Therapy Laws has had on her ability to recover and move on as a detransitioner.

These clients all emphasised what HRLA’s representation and defence means to them, in allowing them to call on experts who not only have the ability and skill to defend them, but are also committed to supporting their values and fundamental freedoms. Their stories are a testament to the importance of the work of HRLA.

Source: HRLA

The stereotype that single mothers are ‘leaning on the system’ is far from the truth. So why does it still exist? – ABC News

Jenny Davidson, the CEO of the Council of Single Mothers and their Children says the report found that the average age of survey respondents was 44, and they had 1.9 children.

“[More than] sixty-five per cent of those [mothers] have been affected by family violence, so that’s a major trigger and there are still stigmas that single mothers are … leaning on the system,” Davidson says.

In reality, almost 80 per cent of single mothers are in paid employment and more are looking for work, she says.

In recent years, there have been some positive changes after the federal government’s decision to raise the age cut-off for the Parenting Payment from eight to 14.

Previously when a child turned eight, a parent would be transferred onto the JobSeeker allowance, which is a lesser payment and requires the parent to look for work.

But there are still challenges. In October, Swinburne University of Technology released a report which found that, in Australia, $1.7 billion is owed in child support. The aim of the report was to “shine a light on how financial abuse is perpetrated” via loopholes in the current Australian child support scheme.

Researchers and campaigners recently called on the federal government to address how support payments are “being weaponised by parents”.

And the Council of Single Mothers and their Children report shows that the risk of homelessness for single mothers is three time greater than the national average.

Source: The stereotype that single mothers are ‘leaning on the system’ is far from the truth. So why does it still exist? – ABC News