Maternity care, screening, surrogacy and treatment for under-18s

The document calls on Health NZ to properly recognise and fund continuity of midwifery care, and to provide publicly funded primary maternity services in rural as well as urban centres, with services adequately resourced for quality and affordable provision for all. Alongside it, wrap-around support for vulnerable mothers and babies, tied to a stated aim of reducing the number of children removed from their families.

Paid maternity leave reviewed and extended from six to twelve months, with partners entitled to paid leave at the birth in addition. On childcare, quality and affordable or free provision with qualified and fairly paid staff, and a complete review of the current for-profit early childhood education sector against whether it meets the needs of women and children.

Cervical smears and breast screening free and easily available to all women. The document adds that such services should be exclusively for biological women and use clear language including the word “women”.

A ban on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children and adolescents under 18 presenting with what the document calls sex-related distress, and government-funded masculinisation or feminisation cosmetic surgery restricted to those over 25 rather than the current 18.

The document calls for an inquiry into Health NZ’s contracting of PATHA, the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa, to update guidelines for gender-affirming care. Its stated basis is the Cass Report’s assessment of guideline quality, which it says placed the New Zealand PATHA guidelines second to last with a score of 149 out of 600.

Commercial surrogacy should remain illegal, and the document calls additionally for a ban on New Zealand citizens entering commercial surrogacy arrangements overseas. It supports the current Bill’s preservation of the birth mother as first legal parent but wants longer than seven days for her to decide on transferring parentage, and supports surrogate-born children being able to learn their genetic and gestational origins and whakapapa. It raises health and safety concerns about egg harvesting and embryo transfer for donors and recipients.