Parents in dark over abortion

A Taranaki mother’s fight for parents to be told if their daughter is having an abortion is not supported by Family Planning.

There are fears making it mandatory will breach all confidentiality between young women and health professionals trying to help them.

Hillary Kieft, of Stratford, has presented a petition to Parliament calling for abortion law changes that will make it mandatory for parents of a child under the age of 16 to be told before their daughter has an abortion.

Kieft’s own daughter, who was 15 at the time, was taken for an abortion in Hawera in 2010 that was arranged by her school and it wasn’t until a year later, when she attempted suicide, that Kieft found out what her daughter had been through.

On Thursday Family Planning were called to the Justice and Electoral select committee to make a submission on the petition, which they’re strongly opposed to because of the privacy and confidentiality breaches it would involve.

Family Planning chief executive Jackie Edmond said the law as it stands is outdated and needs fixing but that doesn’t extend to making parent notification for under16s mandatory, or compulsory post-abortion counselling, as mooted by Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox.

‘‘We wouldn’t support mandatory counselling because a lot of people are happy with the decision they’ve made. There’s little benefit to forced counselling.’’

But Edmond admitted abortions were part of a ‘‘broken system’’ as they currently fell under justice rather than the Ministry of Health.

This means there is no data collection around abortions for under-16s collated by the Ministry of Health.

Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni, who also sits on the health select committee, said given 15 per cent of abortions are women aged 11 to 19, ‘‘we should have rich information about this group that informs better practice’’.

‘‘It’s a health issue – it’s not an anything else issue,’’ Edmond said. ‘‘We can talk about this as a very large, huge event but over 90 per cent of women are happy with the decision they make with abortions.

‘‘Clearly it’s a big decision and I don’t want to understate it but for many women it’s a positive experience in what was a difficult situation.’’

Family Planning national medical adviser Christine Roke told MPs that parental involvement in abortions was a good thing ‘‘but pushing it on young people isn’t’’.

‘‘It’s breaching confidentiality and privacy for a questionable benefit.’’

She said there was no proof that abortions caused mental health issues in women, so that was not a reason for parents to need to be told. Roke said health professionals would also encourage young women getting abortions to involve their families but ultimately they sometimes chose not to.

‘‘Some are scared of an element of violence, which is why they don’t tell them, but also some children might want to protect their parents, who might be going through a hard time or are unwell. That’s a very adult reason for not telling them,’’ she said.

They often do tell another trusted adult, Edmond said.

There’s little benefit to forced counselling. Family Planning chief executive Jackie Edmond