Page 2909 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018
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(b) work with pharmacists, health practitioners and their relevant representative organisations to ensure that their professional standards are met in the supply of reproductive health medications by allowing people, particularly women, to access these products and services without fear of intimidation, humiliation or embarrassment; and
(c) remind health practitioners of their ethical obligations in dispensing reproductive health medicines and that this is best practice to ensure continuity of care for a patient.
At the start of this speech I think it is only polite to notify members that I will be including references to menstruation, reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, awkward teenagers and the supernatural.
I have moved this motion today because everyone deserves to be able to go to their pharmacist for confidential and non-judgemental advice. I know I can. I have the most amazing pharmacists who I speak to about all of my healthcare needs—and, let me tell you, there are a few of them.
Unfortunately, a small number of Canberrans are not quite so lucky. There are times when a woman needs the support of a stranger; there are times when people go somewhere expecting kind, supportive advice; and there are times when you are faced with what feels like a crisis, and being confronted with lectures and negative judgement means that women will not necessarily get their health needs met.
I am not saying pharmacists do not get to have a conscience. I am saying they do not get to entrap vulnerable people with their views. This motion is the start of a conversation on how we can all be more respectful, on how everyone deserves the right to access the best healthcare advice our community pharmacies have to offer, and on how nobody deserves to feel intimidated or humiliated when accessing health products, services and advice.
As I have mentioned many times in this place, I have teenage boys. I raised them to say, “If it’s not on, it’s not on.” Not every family shares my parenting views. I have heard of situations where young people raised in families which are a little more awkward about sexuality might get themselves into a bit of trouble. They find themselves a lovely partner, they think this love will last forever, and they decide, respectfully and together, that they will do what many consenting people do every day. I think they should be safe to do so.
But before they do that, we need to do everything we can to ensure that there are places they can go to which will not make the sense of embarrassment and confusion worse, so that they can feel no pressure when walking into a pharmacy and asking for advice about condoms, sex and protection. And if, afterwards, they have an STI, we need them to be able to go somewhere safe to get it treated and get advice about what to do about it, without judgement and without moralising.
What happens if—I am sure no-one wants this to happen but we all know of incidents where it does—the condom breaks? Maybe you need the morning-after pill. Shouldn’t everyone be able to feel they can walk into their closest pharmacy and have access to
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