Government Discrimination against Single Women who want to be a Mum
My last blog was about the wonderful journey I had with IVF Australia, and this remains the case, yet this blog carries more of a serious, some may call feminist, tone.
I have strong negative opinions on government discrimination against healthy, fertile women who go through IVF Treatment "single", offering no financial aid and medicare rebates. The government believe that for us women who tick one of these boxes:
Fertile (to me this is a positive in every other way)
Don't manage to find the right partner to want to have a family with
In a same sex relationship
Leave it a little too late to have a child with someone
Simply choose to be an SMC - Single Mother by Choice
We fall into a category coined - "Making A Social Choice" - This is the terminology used by Government in response to these reasons for undergoing IVF/IUI.
Here is an excerpt from IVF Australia site on their Single Women page ...If you are not medically infertile – for example, if you have no pre-existing fertility conditions and are a single woman or a woman in a same-sex relationship – Medicare will not cover your treatment.
I am not stating here that IVF Australia either agrees nor disagrees with this statement, they are merely informing patients up-front of the legislation and non-rebatable Medicare costs. And I am most certainly not claiming to have all of the facts, I am just writing this article from the information I have at hand whilst going through my IUI cycles as a Single Female.
I fundamentally believe this is discrimination against us women who just haven't met the "perfect" man whom we want to father our children and for those women in same-sex relationships. We have to do something about this...
Can we please rally together against government and let's take a stand against inequality, this is up there with "Marriage Equality" I found this wonderful group who are taking a stand to allow all Adult Australians to marry, they state:-
We believe a person’s gender or sexuality should not affect their legal rights and responsibilities under Australian marriage law. Our approach to achieving marriage equality is through lobbying, advocacy and education. We’ve always held that marriage equality will be achieved when supporters work together regardless of faith, party, race or sexuality. We value respect, calm discussion and cooperation. We believe there is no place in the marriage equality debate for prejudice, anger and polarisation.
This statement rings true to choosing to be a Single Mother also.
Just to finish off... Not only do I not get rebates from Medicare because I am healthy, fertile and single but to top it off I earn too much to qualify for the Maternity Leave Benefit. Therefore, being single I go from one income to none - it just all makes it that little bit tougher, but a choice I have made.
So all in all my choice to be a Mum, truly is an expensive one but also a priceless one - I will never put a cost on being a mum, it is all I have ever really wanted.