Advice. On Birth Control Refused

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 24

Advice. On Birth Control Refused

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, October 15.

The Health Department will not give advice on birth control, even when asked to do so.

This was made clear today by Dr J. F. Dawson, medical officer of health for the.department in Hamilton. The department’s policy has been criticised by Dr Ruth Black, chairman of the medical advisory committee of the Planned Parenthood Federation. Dr Black said the department had disregarded the needs of Maoris and Polynesians living in New Zealand by taking an unrealistic view of birth control. She said departmental doctors and nurses had been forbidden to discuss the subject of planned families and birth control with a woman who was expecting a child. Maori and Polynesian women were often visited at their homes by nurses, and occasionally by doctors from the department. “They are the people who need help,”’ said Dr Black. Many Maoris and Polynesians were ignorant of birth control methods and would rather fend for .hemselves. Dr Black said she knew of a case in which a Hamilton district nurse who had advised some Maori women on ways to restrict a family had been told to stop the practice by the medical officer of health. Dr Dawson said he could not recollect the case. He said the department’s policy since 1966 had .been to refer requests for birth control advice to the patient’s doctor or to a family planning association. : “It is the doctor s place to i advise on such matters,” he said. I Dr Dawson said he could

not give the reasoning behind the department’s policy.

When asked to comment on Dr Black's criticisms he said he did not wish to enter into a newspaper controversy with Dr Black.