WUNRN
ABC – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
AUSTRALIA – “PERFORMING AN ABORTION WITHOUT THE EXPECTANT MOTHER’S KNOWLEDGE, ON A GIRL WITH
DISABILITY & IN STATE CARE, CAN NEVER BE IN HER BEST INTERESTS,” CEO OF WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES AUSTRALIA
By the National Reporting Team's Kate Wild – 31 March 2015
Performing an abortion on a girl in state care without
her knowledge can never be in her best interests, a disabilities advocate says.
Women with Disabilities Australia CEO Carolyn
Fromahder said it was "deeply alarming" the NT Department of Children and
Families explored having an abortion performed on a 17-year-old girl
last year after she became pregnant while in their care.
But she said her organisation, which is a national
peak body representing women with disabilities, saw the assumption that women
with intellectual disabilities could not be good parents "all the
time".
On Monday, the ABC reported doctors had refused to perform
the abortion and the Department was advised it was not in the girl's best
interests to proceed.
If a teenage girl, 16, 17 years old, who
didn't have a disability, was pregnant, would they actually try and procure an
abortion for a young woman who didn't have a disability?
Carolyn Fromahder, Women with
Disabilities Australia CEO
The Department then dropped its push for the
termination to be performed.
The girl, who has since turned 18, has a cognitive impairment.
"We're talking here about a young woman who has
fundamental human rights to determine what happens with her own body," Ms
Fromahder said.
"And the fact that those decisions and
discussions were being made in the absence of any involvement from her is
unthinkable.
"There is absolutely no evidence to demonstrate
that a child of a parent with an intellectual disability is at any more risk of
harm than the child of a parent without an intellectual disability," she
said.
"If a teenage girl, 16, 17 years old, who didn't
have a disability, was pregnant, would they actually try and procure an
abortion for a young woman who didn't have a disability?
"The answer is no they wouldn't. So, the only
reason the Government has acted the way it has is because that young woman has
a cognitive impairment."
The chief executive of the Department of Children and
Families, Anne Bedford, said in a statement yesterday:
The
Department of Children and Families is required to make parental decisions for
children in care to ensure their physical and emotional safety and wellbeing.
Where
a decision is particularly significant, i.e. the termination of a pregnancy,
the decision is informed by appropriate medical, psychological and legal
advice.
All decisions are made with the best interests of the
child in mind.