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A politician has described it as "disappointing" that work is "beginning to be pulled" on the three areas that the Government pledged to focus on when plans to scrap a stand-alone Women's Health Strategy were revealed last month.
When the Government announced plans to scrap a stand-alone Women's Health Strategy last month, it instead pledged to focus on "key areas of concern", such as a review of the abortion law, and funding for IVF and contraception services.
However, it emerged last week that Jersey's 27-year-old abortion law will not be updated until the end of 2026 because of "resourcing challenges" – despite previous announcements that new legislation would be voted on by States Members before the end of this year.
Until ‘at least’ 2026 - who knows when it would actually happen. What a waste of energy and resources on a very sensitive consultation and preliminary policy work ???? This simply isn’t good enough and just shows what’s really meant by cancelling the women’s health strategy
— Lucy Stephenson (@LucyStevoJSY) June 10, 2024
Speaking to Express, Deputy Lucy Stephenson said: “It’s quite disappointing, when we were told the Women’s Health Strategy was being cancelled, but work would continue with the three areas of focus, and now we hear those are beginning to be pulled.
“We know that the Health Minister keeps talking about cost and budget, and of course that is important, but so is the health of our population and our female population.”
She added that the time spent on putting together a consultation on a “really sensitive issue” like the termination of pregnancy had “gone to waste” and that the women who responded would find it “unfair” that sharing their personal experiences had been in vain.
Pictured: The function of ‘Women’s Health Policy’ has been delegated to Assistant Health Minister Andy Howell.
Health Minister Tom Binet recently signed a ministerial decision which delegated the function of ‘Women’s Health Policy’ to Assistant Health Minister Andy Howell in the absence of a specific strategy focussing on these issues.
The appointment was revealed last week when Constable Karen Shenton-Stone asked the Health Minister to explain how, in the absence of the Women’s Health Strategy, he intended to “centrally identify, implement and monitor improvements to health services for women”.
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