Victorians now have easier and fairer access to assisted reproductive treatment following legislation being passed last week which removes the requirement for women and their partners to undergo police and child protection order checks before receiving treatment.
In a statement the Minister for Health, Jenny Mikakos said the new legislation removed the unnecessary delays, costs and distress associated with the checks.
“The change means a woman and her partner, if she has one, and parties to a surrogacy arrangement, will have quicker access to the treatment they need to grow their family,” Ms Mikakos said.
“It will impact an estimated 25,000 women and their partners who access assisted reproductive treatment in Victoria each year,” she said.
“The changes respond to concerns about the requirements for the checks raised during the landmark independent review of Assisted Reproductive Treatment in Victoria by Michael Gorton AM, with many patients describing them as unfair, humiliating and a cause of distress.”
Ms Mikakos said assisted reproductive treatment clinics would still be required to ensure that the welfare and best interests of the child to be born were paramount when deciding to treat a woman.
“Police and child protection order checks unfairly discriminate between people who can conceive naturally and those accessing assisted reproductive treatment,” the Minister said.
These legislative changes will fix that!” she said.
Ms Mikakos said the State had already implemented several recommendations from the Independent Review – including removing the requirement for women who were separated but not divorced to seek the approval of their former partner to access IVF with their own eggs and donor sperm.
