Should smokers who get lung cancer be denied treatment because their lifestyle has contributed to their illness?
Should alcoholics be banned from having treatment because their consumption of alcohol has given them chronic liver damage? The answer to both of these questions is quite obviously no.
So if a person’s lifestyle isn’t important in these circumstances, why are single women in some parts of the country being denied IVF treatment because of the lifestyle they’ve chosen?
It emerged this week that NHS South East has banned single women from receiving IVF based on a report which says: “A sole woman is unable to bring out the best outcomes for the child.”
I’m sorry but what? As a single parent myself I find that language and policy deeply offensive.
I’ve worked since I was 16, I fully provide for my children, I’ve been to every play, sports day and cake sale while working full-time, so can NHS South East explain to me, and the countless single working mothers out there, how we are a burden to society?
I’d argue that we contribute as much as other parents, if not more, because our children see how hard we work and sacrifice to provide for them.
I don’t think it’s down to the NHS, which has happily given people boob jobs and liposuction, to make moral judgments on who, or what, makes a good mother. (Side note, a friend in Croydon, who was in a long-term relationship, was denied IVF treatment because her partner had children from a previous relationship and so she had to pretend to be SINGLE to get the treatment... bonkers).
If the NHS feels IVF is a valid form of treatment for infertile women, then it should be available to all women who meet the health criteria, not just those who fit into their definition of what a “good mother” looks like.
Labour’s Harriet Harman, who called it “perverse”, is right when she says: “There is no evidence that children brought up by unmarried mothers do worse than those brought up by those who are married.”
But there is plenty of evidence of the damage marriage breakdown has on children.
If the NHS is worried about the circumstances into which a child is going to be born, it should apply that to all parents rather than demonising single mothers. Come on guys, that’s so 1980s.
