Sterilisation not on

3 Sep 2013: In past blogs I have written about the sterilisation of women with intellectual disabilities being sterilised without consent and the emotional distraught this has caused when the women have discovered they cannot have children because what they thought was an appendix operation was in fact a hysterectomy.

It is great that Australian doctors will be charged with criminal assault if they perform sterilisation on women with an intellectual disability without court approval.

To use sterilisation as a means to control menstruation or unwanted pregnancy is abhorrent. Making it convenient to not have to deal with a period and not have to deal with teaching your daughter about sex is not enough to opt for sterilisation.

This latest article http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/07/17/02/33/nervous-wait-for-sterilisation-report, shows how parents are by-passing courts consent and taking their daughter overseas for forced sterilisation which can now result in criminal charges. This is a good step forward.