Experts, doctors, MPs call for health strategy

‘‘Too many women are dying.’’

Angela Meyer Gender Justice Collective founder

Thousands of women, doctors and educators are backing calls for women’s health services to be overhauled, an issue which garnered cross-party support on the steps of Parliament.

The Gender Justice Collective handed in a 2873-signature petition in Wellington yesterday, backed by academics and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, calling for an urgent select committee process, for the Government to set aside $6 million to overhaul women’s health services and for a women’s health and wellbeing strategy.

The petition comes after Labour’s Kiritapu Allan said she had stage 3 cervical cancer.

‘‘For many women in this country, that is an everyday reality. Too many women are dying,’’ Gender Justice Collective founder Angela Meyer said.

Women’s health strategies existed in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. Without one, health services did not have a complete view of the issues facing women, wahine Ma¯ ori and trans and non-binary people, she said.

New Zealand has high rates of preventable harm in maternal health and cervical cancer.

At the moment, it was up to individuals and groups to pressure the Government for better funding, and women’s health issues were often put in the ‘‘too hard basket’’, she said.

‘‘You have to go to Government and say I need better funding for endometriosis, I need better funding for cervical cancer and all these issues that affect women. What we are really asking for is an intersectional, hauora-based strategy that actually puts women at the heart of it and looks at what they go through in their lifetime.’’

Ten to 20 per cent of women will develop some form of mental distress during their pregnancy or within the first year after having a baby, research from the Health Promotion Agency shows.

The situation is even more dire for Ma¯ ori. Fifty-seven per cent of those who died by suicide in pregnancy or within six weeks after birth were wa¯ hine Ma¯ ori, while their maternal suicide rate was seven times higher than in the UK.

Labour MP Louisa Wall, who accepted the petition, said she wanted New Zealand to lead the world in gender equality.

‘‘We have the systems and we have the technology that can make sure that our needs are met through screening programmes,’’ she said.