Government should get out of our bedrooms

The Prime Minister is unable to deny that young women on welfare will be forced to take long term contraception in order to stop their benefits being cut, the Green Party said today.

The Government has announced that beneficiary mothers and their teen daughters will be offered long term contraception in an apparent bid to stop them having babies.

The Government has no right to intrude on a woman’s choice to have a child. It should get its hands off our wombs.

Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei today asked John Key if he could guarantee that no mother would be warned to get the depo provera injection to avoid having a baby and risk losing her benefit.

John Key replied that he would expect case managers to ensure young mothers understood the Government's policy around work testing on the DPB.

"This shows it is very possible that Work and Income case managers could use Government policy to intrude on a woman's reproductive choices," Mrs Turei said.

"The Government's work testing of mothers who have babies on the benefit, combined with this new policy may leave women feeling coerced into longer term contraception to avoid losing their benefits.

"This is just another example of this Government's anti mothers and babies mind-set. It begs the question, why aren't they coercing men and their teenage sons into longer term contraception to avoid making more 'undesirable' children?

"The Government has no right to intrude on a woman's choice to have a child. It should get its hands off our wombs.

"Intensely private and personal decisions women make about whether to have a baby should not be made in the front of WINZ case managers who hold financial authority over their lives.

"The UN convention protecting women from discrimination enshrines their right to freely choose how many children to have and when to have them.

"Clearly John Key thinks this should not be a right afforded to our least wealthy mothers.

"If he is genuine about offering contraception to women who would like it but can't afford it, he should fully fund it to all lower income women through the Community Services Card.

"Then his Government should tackle the reasons why women are really on the benefit, like marriage breakdown, family violence, poverty, mental illness and a lack of training opportunities."

Research shows young women who are on the DPB are a particularly vulnerable group who need intelligent innovative policy solutions, not knee jerk reactions from a Government trying to appeal to a red neck minority, Mrs Turei said.