Why Tash is my hero:

Making counselling honest on the abortion option
The Age, 22 Feb 2006
-Natasha Stott Despoja

Now that the Health Minister has lost the RU486 debate, he has produced a back-up plan including money for a pregnancy counselling hotline and Medicare rebates for pregnancy counselling.

This sounds reasonable until you realise that the Government does not fund any dedicated pro-choice counselling services and those services it does fund are not accredited or prohibited from engaging in false or misleading advertising.

There are only two dedicated pro-choice pregnancy counselling services in Australia -Children by Choice in Queensland and the Bessie Smyth Foundation in NSW. Neither receives Commonwealth funding.

But the Government allocates more than $240,000 each year to the Australian Federation of Pregnancy Support Services for pregnancy counselling services (the federation is an umbrella organisation linked to pro-life organisations). This was boosted in November, when the Government granted the federation a further $100,000 to support its national phone counselling line.

Many of the pregnancy counselling organisations that receive Federal Government funding through the federation give the impression in their advertising and notification material that they provide information on all three pregnancy options: keeping the baby, adoption and abortion. But in fact, they do not refer for terminations. Often, if they do provide information about abortion, it is misleading and not based on up-to-date, objective research.

To tackle this, I have introduced the Transparent Advertising and Notification of Pregnancy Counselling Services Bill 2005. It seeks to prohibit misleading and deceptive advertising and notification of pregnancy counselling services; promote transparency and full choice in the notification and advertising of pregnancy counselling services; improve public health; and minimise the difficulties associated with obtaining advice to deal with unplanned pregnancy. It would force pregnancy counselling organisations to be upfront about whether they do or do not refer for terminations, so women can be clear about what sort of organisation they are contacting.

The bill is necessary because although the Trade Practices Act outlaws conduct that is liable to mislead the public about the nature, the characteristics, the suitability for their purpose or the quantity of any services, most pregnancy counselling services are not subject to the Trade Practices Act. This is because they usually do not charge for the information and other services and are thus not engaging in trade or commerce.

My bill would make pregnancy counselling services subject to the same laws regarding misleading advertising as organisations that are engaged in trade or commerce.

I have been campaigning for greater transparency in the advertising and notification of pregnancy counselling services since concerns about the way one pregnancy counselling service, Pregnancy Counselling Australia, was listed in the White Pages were brought to my attention in 2004.

Those who contacted me were concerned that the way Pregnancy Counselling Australia was listed gave the impression that it was an impartial or non-directive pregnancy counselling service yet, in fact, it is run by a pro-life organisation and does not refer for terminations.

I raised this issue in the Senate and wrote to Sensis urging it to remove Pregnancy Counselling Australia from the emergency and community help pages of the White Pages, and replace it with a non-directive pregnancy counselling service. I also urged Sensis to engage in corrective advertising to advise the public of the true nature of the service Pregnancy Counselling Australia provides.

Sensis said it had, in conjunction with Pregnancy Counselling Australia, already altered two previous listings.

Sensis explained that Pregnancy Counselling Australia complies with its rules, which include that the content of the listing must not misrepresent the nature of the service.

However, Birthline, the group behind this service, is not mentioned in the listing, nor is the fact that Pregnancy Counselling Australia does not provide referrals for terminations.

This has encouraged me to continue to push for greater transparency, to ensure women are able to make informed choices about who they contact.

Given the Government’s record, I am concerned about its proposed national pregnancy counselling hotline – and the proposed Medicare rebate for pregnancy counselling. A rebate for voluntary pregnancy counselling might not be such a problem if the counselling was objective and impartial and included information on all three pregnancy options. But it is clear that the majority of existing counselling does not meet these criteria.

Before the Health Minister throws more money at pregnancy counselling, perhaps he should address some of these outstanding issues.