AU — Sydney. The guideline used by all major Australian children’s hospital gender clinics for gaining informed consent before prescribing sex-hormones to children is unlawful, according to a ruling this month by a family court in Sydney.In this case, the mother opposes hormonal and surgical intervention; the child lives with his father, who supports it. “Any treating medical practitioner seeing an adolescent under the age of 18 is not at liberty to initiate (puberty blockers, opposite sex hormones or trans surgery) without first ascertaining whether or not a child’s parents or legal guardians consent to the proposed treatment,” Judge Watts said.Hormonal treatment — puberty blockers to stop natural hormones followed by hormones to encourage opposite-sex external characteristics — has the potential to make young people infertile, incapable of orgasm, and has unknown long-term effects on mental and physical health.
Category: Reproductive Rights
Coronavirus Victoria: Record number of women seek mental health help amid COVID-19 pandemic
Victorian women are seeking mental health support at record levels as the coronavirus pandemic drives up stress, anxiety and depression among those bearing the brunt of caring responsibilities.
Social isolation, the stress of home schooling and caring for elderly relatives, and economic worries are affecting women of all ages during the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Coronavirus Victoria: Record number of women seek mental health help amid COVID-19 pandemic
STATEMENT: Whistleblower Report of Hysterectomies in ICE Detention Is Emblematic of Widespread Reproductive Coercion and Abuses of Women’s Rights
Washington, D.C. — In a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility operated by the private corporation LaSalle Corrections, details gross human rights abuses in the facility. The complaint includes allegations of medical neglect, dangerous practices in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and startling claims of coerced, mass hysterectomies.
Reports of mass hysterectomies and medical neglect in ICE detention are horrifying but sadly not surprising. The United States has a long and sordid history of reproductive coercion and forced sterilization, particularly targeting Black, Latina, and Native American women as well as women with disabilities and incarcerated women. These racist, eugenicist practices are often sanctioned by U.S. law, which to this day allows for the sterilization of anyone deemed “unfit.” Furthermore, abuses of women’s health and rights in immigration detention are nothing new. Detention facilities routinely deny adequate health care and inflict abuse and neglect, from lack of maternal health care to limits on reproductive autonomy to sexual abuse. The Trump administration has gone to great lengths to deny reproductive freedom to people in immigration custody, including rolling back the presumption that pregnant women generally should not be detained and taking steps to deny young women the right to an abortion.
Male Parent Wins Battle in Legal Fight to be Recognized as Biological Mother of Child
BR — Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. On August 18, a Brazilian court ruled that a male parent and his former female partner should both be legally recognized as biological mothers to their child.
One male Facebook commenter pointed out that a man fighting to be legally recognized as ‘mother’ on a birth certificate that is a child’s, not even his own, is an example of “narcissism without limits.” Several Facebook commenters agreed that it is an example of “legal deceit” that harms the child’s right to know and to have accurate records.Calls by transgender advocates to abandon the traditional definition of ‘mother’ and redefine the word to include male individuals have been seen this year in France, Brazil and India.
‘Distress and fear’: poverty looms for a million Australian children once coronavirus supplement slashed
Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers and Their Children, said the $550-a-fortnight supplement had been “life-altering” and its reduction was causing “distress and fear”.
She pointed to a survey of 600 single mothers conducted by the organisation that found the income boost had reduced stress for 88% of respondents because they could now afford to pay their bills.
Toni Wren, the executive director of Anti-Poverty Week, said government data showed about 1.1 million children lived in families receiving the supplement in July.
That included 500,000 children whose parents were receiving the jobseeker payment.
“Our main concern is that now it is one-in-five Australian children whose parents are receiving that payment,” Wren said.
California politician Buffy Wicks held her newborn while casting a deciding vote on family leave bill
Wicks, a Democrat in the California State Assembly, was on maternity leave when some key pieces of legislation regarding family leave and affordable housing came up, that she desperately wanted to see passed.
Wicks had given birth to her immunocompromised daughter, Elly, at the end of July, and had applied to the House Speaker, Anthony Rendon, to vote remotely. The request was denied.
Having recently given birth to a baby with jaundice wasn’t deemed a sufficient reason for casting a vote remotely, a privilege that had been granted to other COVID-19 “high-risk” members.
“My daughter’s immune system is basically nonexistent,” Wicks said. “But I was told that maternity leave didn’t qualify for in-proxy voting.”
House Speaker Anthony Rendon, a fellow Democrat, was forced to apologise to Wicks for not considering her situation fully.
A powerful coalition backs high quality, affordable early education & care
Leaders, parents, workers, educators and community organisations are joining forces to call for a universally accessible early education system.
The campaign is supported by Goodstart Early Learning, Early Childhood Australia, ARACY, The Mitchell Institute, the ACTU, The United Workers Union, The Australia Institute, The Parenthood, Chief Executive Women, The Centre for Social Impact, The Smith Family, ACOSS and more.
By global standards the cost of childcare in Australia is prohibitively expensive. Combined with our tax system it actively disincentivises women from working beyond three days a week.
Source: A powerful coalition backs high quality, affordable early education & care
Dignity Survey 2020
Source: Dignity Survey 2020
Birthing on Country program empowering Aboriginal women on NSW South Coast – ABC News
A Birthing on Country program on the New South Wales South Coast proves so successful the service is preparing to sign a statement of commitment with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.
Waminda cultural manager Cleone Wellington said the partnership would signify a shift in attitude towards Aboriginal women.
“I think the biggest thing in this is about women’s voices, Aboriginal women’s voices being heard,” she said.
Source: Birthing on Country program empowering Aboriginal women on NSW South Coast – ABC News
Raising childcare subsidy would deliver $11 billion economic boost
Mums would earn an extra $150,000 over their working lives if the federal government spent another $5 billion on annual childcare subsidies, new research suggests.
But while the report says the government should slash childcare costs to boost workforce participation, it stopped short of calling for universal free child care and described a subsidy increase as more realistic.
This is mainly because introducing free child care overnight would lead to such a massive boost in demand that providers would struggle to cope, Ms Griffiths said.
Source: Raising childcare subsidy would deliver $11 billion economic boost: Grattan