Child birth - it's not a right.
Australia is in the throws of a humungeous argument right now: whether a single woman or a lesbian couple have the "right" to in vitro-fertilization in order to have a child. The federal government has long been opposed to such treatments. The former health minister, Dr Michael Woolridge [now shamed over his employment purchasing scam] is on record
"...threatening to prosecute prosecute doctors providing Medicare-funded services to help fertile single and lesbian women have children.
He also revealed that the Federal Government considered restricting Medicare funding of IVF for infertile single and lesbian women but rejected it because it would discriminate against poor women [SMH, August 4th , 2000]
A recent decision by the High Court of Australia means that it is against the sex discrimination act to discriminate on marital status. Here's a snippet from the Courier Mail.
THE woman behind yesterday's High Court decision to give infertile single women and lesbians access to IVF treatment last night claimed God was on her side.
Leesa Meldrum, who can now continue in vitro fertilization in her home state of Victoria, said that as a Catholic she had felt persecuted by her own church.
Two years ago, the Federal Court decided Ms Meldrum had the right to have IVF treatment. It ruled that a Victorian law barring single women from fertility treatment was against the federal Sex Discrimination Act. [Courier Mail, 19th April, 2002]
Prime Minister John [they did throw their children overboard] Howard has also put his views on the record previously:
[the Prime Minister] declared all children should have the right to a mother and a father as he moves to institute laws which allow single women and gay couples to be banned from IVF treatment.
Federal Cabinet will move to change the Sex Discrimination Act after the Federal Court overruled a Victorian ban on IVF treatment for single women because it contravened the law.
"It's the view of the Government that the Sex Discrimination Act was never intended to deny States the right to legislate in the way Victoria has legislated," Mr Howard said yesterday. [The Telegraph, 2nd Aug, 2000]
And it is this change to the act that is in the news again now. Here he is again, last week, this time on radio:
"Well I think that the available evidence suggests that whilst not every male and female, a couple, not every traditional family arrangement is perfect, far from it. Many of them break down. But the evidence does suggest that children raised in the environment of having both a mother and a father are more likely to have happier, more fulfilled lives. " [from a radio interview with The Prime Minister on 3AW, 19th April, 2002]
If I could be so bold as to call a pause in the argument here. The issue really isn't whether it is discrimination on the grounds of marital status that allows or prevents a single woman from having a child. The question really is - should single people be having children.
The Bible says this:
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." [Gen 1:27-28]
Notice that the mandate was given to "them" - the man and the woman.
Not the the man.
Not to the woman.
But to the couple.
In our enlightened times we don not necessarily choose to accept the word of our creator in matters of morality [unless it suits our purposes - see Leesa Meldrum's snide attack on the Roman Catholic Church in the first quotation above]. But I think that in a society that still acknowledges the institution of marriage and the family in legislation and in practice - that the tax-payer funded treatment of infertile single women, and indeed lesbian couples, should not be continued. Of course we can't stop un married people having children - but at least they can do it on their own dime.
Childbirth is not a right. It is a mandate given to a couple.
7:58:24 PM 
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