Sometimes in politics it is the singer that matters, not the song. When Social Development Minister Paula Bennett this week announced free long-acting contraception for beneficiaries, it somehow sounded offensive. It seemed to say to women on benefits, "We don't want you breeding". That is probably why poverty activist Sue Bradford claimed it bordered on state control of women's reproductive choices and the Labour Party was at pains to find something wrong with it.
Yet free contraception is a benefit that in different circumstances Labour would be proud to promote. Indeed, four years ago, when Labour was governing, the Auckland District Health Board made the morning-after pill free from its pharmacies to reduce teenage pregnancy and abortions. The Waikato board had set up a similar programme the previous year. Women's health advocates were enthusiastic about those schemes. They were not so happy yesterday.
"Women's contraceptive choices do not belong in welfare policy," said Christy Parker, a senior policy analyst for the Women's Health Action Trust. "The Government's preference for women on benefits to make particular contraceptive choices represents a violation on their human rights," she said.
National's proposal is not as novel as it sounds. Pharmac already funds some contraceptive devices and it would be surprising if beneficiaries' case managers were not already in the habit of steering young solo mothers in that direction if they seemed at risk of another pregnancy. The only claim Ms Bennett can make for her new programme is that it would pay the doctor's fee and the cost of any devices that may be outside Pharmac's schedule.
There is more politics than substance in her song. The National Party has a tendency to exaggerate the problem of beneficiaries having babies, particularly in their teens. Mothers under 19 give birth to about 7 per cent of babies born in New Zealand each year. The rate has been fairly stable regardless of contraceptive campaigns.
