Latest newsletter #168 Click to read online

Parents, their daughters and the Pill

Babette Francis (B.Sc.Hons)

The vast majority of parents love their children and wish only the best for their offspring. Yet government policies in regard to sex, sexuality and gender seem aimed at by-passing the concerns and rights of parents. A news item in the Weekend Australian, 5/6 August 2017, under the heading "Parents cut out of teens access to the pill at school" reports that "Girls as young as 11 could obtain a prescription for the contraceptive pill from school under updated guidelines for a Victorian program that makes it clear that parental consent is not a legal requirement. Guidelines for the Doctors in Secondary Schools Program made public this week suggest teachers will have the authoriy to overrule parents who have objections to their child seeing a doctor during school time, 'with all secondary school students considered mature enough to make a decision to see a GP'"

WHO Classifies Contraceptives as Highly Carcinogenic A press release issued on 29th July 2005 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization, declared the combined estrogen- progestogen oral contraceptives (OCs) as carcinogenic. This is the most recent low-dose contraceptive currently available and which the manufacturers trumpeted as being safe for women. This outright declaration by WHO of the proven dangers of combined OCs comes as confirmation to many who have been working for years to publicise their dangers. The IARC placed the contraceptives into its Group 1 classification, the highest classification of carcinogenicity, used only "when there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans" (its emphasis). This is the same classification used for tobacco and asbestos. Combined estrogen-progestogen OCs is the most commonly prescribed form of contraceptives.

Roslyn Phillips, former Research Officer for Family Voice, Australia, in a letter to the editor of The Australian (7/8/17) wrote: "Giving Victorian girls as young as 11 the legal right to medical treatment without their parents' knowledge or consent could have fatal results.

"Some years ago a UK teen was prescribed the contraceptive pill - which carries a threefold increased risk of blood clots - but did not tell her parents. When the teen later collapsed at home, her parents called the family doctor. They did not know about her medication and the doctor misdiagnosed the problem. Tragically, she died.

"Parents are ultimately responsible for the care and wellbeing of their underage children, whom they know much better than any doctor. At the very least, they deserve to know the treatment their children are receiving".

Another study reported in July 2005 showed that women are at 200% greater risk of heart attack and stroke with the "low-dose" pill, especially for those women with pre-existing medical conditions. A group of researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Universite de Sherbrooke have examined the cases of contraceptive-related complications in women between 1980 and 2002. The risk of heart attack doubled with women using the later "low-dose" version of the pill and the risk returned to normal when the women stopped using it. (See next column for more on this study).

Read coverage from News-Medical.net:
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=11582

The Associated Press reported on 26 March 2002 that women infected with the common sexually transmitted human papilloma virus [HPV] have a higher risk of developing cervical cancer if they have taken birth control pills for more than five years. This study was also conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, of the World Health Organization.

Those infected with HPV who had used birth control pills for an accumulated total of five years or more were nearly three times more likely to develop cervical cancer than HPVinfected women who had never taken the pill. Women who had taken the pill for 10 years or more were four times more likely to get the disease than those who had never taken it. The research was published on the Website of The Lancet medical journal.

See also the flyers from the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, USA: www.bcpinstitute.org "What smart women know before choosing The Pill" "The Pill Kills"

The Editorial in The Australian on 7th August 2017 is well worth quoting: "Andrews undermines parents: Policy leaves pre-teen girls vulnerable to exploitation

"The fact that girls as young as 11, far below the age of consent, could obtain a prescription for the contraceptive pill from schools in Victoria, without their parents' knowledge, shows how remote the Andrews government's values are from those of most families. Australians are more aware than ever about protecting young people from sexual abuse. Yet Victoria's Guidelines for the Doctors in Secondary Schools program could leave pre-teen children and teenagers vulnerable to exploitation or worse if compliant doctors facilitated students' requests for contraception.

"The problem, as Rebecca Urban wrote on Saturday's front page, is that parental consent is not needed for students to see a doctor under the program. GP clinics will operate once a week in 100 schools, providing treatment for physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health issues. Responsible parents would expect to help their children deal with such matters. Yet under the guidelines, teachers are authorised to overrule parents who object to their child seeing a doctor during school time. According to the guidelines, secondary school-aged students are "considered mature enough to make a decision to see a GP".

Destruction of the family, a driving ideology of Marx and Engels that was taken up with gusto in the Soviet Union, underpinned Victoria's extremist Safe Schools Program. Until their children mature, parents are responsible for their physical, emotional, social, educational and moral wellbeing. In the absence of exceptional circumstances, their right to be involved in the most important aspects of their children's lives should not be usurped by edicts from Daniel Andrews's "people's republic".

I have quoted from studies early this century to show for how long doctors have known about the dangers of the pill.
Anyone for Reading, Writing & Arithmetic? It is no surprise that our students are falling behind the world in these skills when the educational focus is on encouraging sexual activity.

<< Back to newsletter