Women's Health Policy shuns DES

Last year, the Australian government developed a new National Women's Health Policy, intent on focusing on prevention, health inequalities and the social determinants of those inequalities.


DES Action Australia-NSW, in representing up to an estimated 555,000 DES exposed women in Australia, made submission for this policy, highlighting:
-prevention needs by way of direct public promotion of DES information
-inequality where Australian DES exposed women have not benefited from the overall improvements in health experienced by most woman as a result of their being deprived of appropriately delivered information.
-the social determinant of the inequality as being political, ie, the government's belief that the promotion of DES information is likely to create anxiety.

DES exposure has not rated any mention anywhere in the newly released Women's Health Policy. Without DES exposure being specifically stated and addressed within the Women's Health Policy document, this signifies a gross injustice, continued abuse of the rights of every Australian woman to be informed of the possibility of having been DES exposed and the perpetuation of inequality for women and inequity between women.