CONFERENCE REPORT ABOUT CHILDREN BY CHOICE ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

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1 1 CONFERENCE REPORT: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IN AUSTRALIA, BRISBANE, AUGUST 2017

2 CONFERENCE REPORT ABOUT CHILDREN BY CHOICE Children by Choice is recognised across Queensland and nationally as experts in counselling and information for women experiencing unplanned pregnancy. We provide a Queensland-wide telephone counselling and referral service to women experiencing unplanned pregnancy, and offer information and referrals for all pregnancy options, including abortion, adoption and parenting. We deliver sexual and reproductive health education sessions in schools and youth centres, and offer training for general practitioners and other health and community professionals on unplanned pregnancy options. We are funded to deliver our counselling and education programs by the Queensland Department of Communities. Children by Choice supports women s access to all options with an unplanned pregnancy, including abortion, and have been involved in helping women access these options since the service began operation in In 2000, this expanded to the provision of financial assistance for abortion access, and in we provided almost $130,000 in financial assistance for abortion and contraception, comprised of grants, no interest loans, and negotiated support with other services. The proceeds from this conference will be used to support our financial assistance program. ABOUT THE CONFERENCE Our second national Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion in Australia conference was held in Brisbane on 3-4 August We were overwhelmed by the interest in our 2017 conference and thank all of those involved in making it a success. The conference was an opportunity for health and community professionals working with women experiencing unplanned pregnancy, and those interested in or working in the fields of abortion provision from across Australia, to advance their skills and expertise in this area of reproductive health. The conference was also a unique opportunity for the sector to come together and share experiences and discuss national and local responses. It included presentations by over 40 speakers from legal, clinical, academic, and community sectors around the country and was attended by over 200 delegates. Plenary sessions were held over two days with expert panellists on Australian abortion law, reproductive health in the global context, and advancements in medical abortion. These sessions were complimented with concurrent sessions on the following topics: Abortion law reform; Unplanned pregnancy prevention and contraception; Abortion in the context of migration; LGBTIQ affirming practice in reproductive autonomy & sexuality education; The intersection between unplanned pregnancy, abortion and domestic violence; Maintaining a workforce and abortion training; Facilitating and improving access to abortion; Evolving models of medical abortion; Supporting all choices; Overcoming challenges in providing abortion; and Counselling and reflection. 2 CONFERENCE REPORT: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IN AUSTRALIA, BRISBANE, AUGUST 2017

3 The PowerPoints from most speakers are available on our website at au/forprofessionals. Throughout the conference attendees were invited to share their thoughts and insights on the conference s calls to action. These were presented in the final conference session and further feedback was sought after the conference from attendees via online platform surveymonkey. The finalised actions are below and we envisage that these actions will be utilised to guide future advocacy work by individuals, networks, and key stakeholders. We invite you to commit to advancing these actions within your role, organisation, networks and community. These calls to action will be promoted throughout the sector and more broadly, and will be revisited at the 2019 conference to measure progress. THANKS As a small organisation we would not be able to hold our conferences without the support of our sponsors. Our thanks to Marie Stopes Australia, the Tabbot Foundation, Greenslopes Day Surgery and Merck Sharp & Dohme (Australia) for their support of our 2017 conference. We would also like to thank the Oakwood Hotel for hosting us, Songwoman Maroochy of the Turrbal Nation for providing the conference s Welcome to Country, Jane Caro for her keynote address, and Nikki Boyd MP for officially opening conference proceedings. The staff and Management Committee of Children by Choice applaud our Education and Training Coordinator Pamela Doherty for all her work in coordinating the conference, including the abstracts, program development, speakers, venue, and volunteer recruitment and supervision. Finally, we would like to thank all conference attendees and guest speakers for sharing their time and knowledge to make our 2017 conference an invaluable couple of days. The success of each of our conferences is a testament to the energy and passion of the sector - a sector to which we are very proud to belong. PRINCIPAL SPONSOR SILVER SPONSORS BRONZE SPONSOR CPD POINTS SUPPORTED BY 3 CONFERENCE REPORT: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IN AUSTRALIA, BRISBANE, AUGUST 2017

4 CALLS TO ACTION CALLS TO ACTIONUT CHILDREN BY CHOICE We call on state, territory and federal governments to develop and implement a comprehensive, well-resourced, outcome-driven National Strategy on Reproductive and Sexual Health. This strategy should: provide a coordinating role across states and territories to ensure equitable access to information and services, particularly for those groups most vulnerable to poorer health outcomes; aim to improve maternal health outcomes, reduce rates of unplanned pregnancy, and reduce inequalities in access to pregnancy care, contraceptive choice and abortion services; complement and build upon related existing national strategies including those on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, women s health, men s health, sexually transmissible infections, LGBTI health, health and disability, migrant and refugee health, and violence prevention; and be underpinned by a human rights approach and a commitment to reducing stigma and enhancing reproductive and sexual health across the lifespan. In addition, we call for these specific actions: The immediate decriminalisation of abortion in all Australian jurisdictions, alongside appropriate, evidence-based health regulations to ensure safe, timely and accessible abortion services. The introduction of safe access zones in all Australian jurisdictions, to protect patients and professionals from harassment and intimidation while entering or leaving abortion provider premises. The implementation of a national long acting reversible contraception guideline to improve uptake and remove barriers to effective contraceptive choices faced by vulnerable groups. The introduction of a national de-identified data collection scheme to report on abortion rates and patient outcomes to enable better service planning and enhance policy responsiveness. For public health systems, health departments and policy makers to take responsibility for ensuring everyone in their region has equitable access to abortion services (including second and third trimester procedures) and contraceptive services, in particular for rural, regional and remote areas and those experiencing disadvantage and financial difficulties, by utilising a range of care models including GP and nurse led service models. For transparency in pregnancy counselling advertising to be legislated at a national level to prevent deceptive practices by services ideologically opposed to abortion and to enable health consumers to be informed about the services they access. We also call on government funding to be allocated only to pregnancy counselling services that provide unbiased and evidence-based support on all pregnancy options, including abortion. A national commitment to a long-term funding increase in Australia s aid program which has dedicated gender equity targets and includes guaranteed designated funding for reproductive health programs in developing countries to improve the health outcomes for women and girls including the provision of unbiased and evidence base information and services relating to contraceptive choices, pregnancy and maternity care, birthing, and abortion, according to the laws of the country in which programs are being delivered. 4 CONFERENCE REPORT: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IN AUSTRALIA, BRISBANE, AUGUST 2017

5 CALLS TO ACTION CONFERENCE FEEDBACK In order to continually improve the quality of our professional development activities, all participants were invited to complete an online feedback form via survey monkey. 63 attendees completed the survey and below is an overview of the feedback received. Attendees reported increases in knowledge and connectedness, notable 85% of attendees reported an extreme or significant increase in connectedness. I really enjoyed the enthusiasm, collaborative style and the expertise offered. Everyone was extremely welcoming and friendly and for someone new to this field it was greatly appreciated. The most valuable thing for me was the opportunity to meet a lot of inspiring people working in the area of abortion, and to feel more connected with others, rather than working in isolation in my practice. The opportunity to get together in the one place with so many pro-choice people is rare and extremely valuable. In regards to standout streams the abortion law reform, supporting all choices, maintaining a workforce and abortion training stream and the intersection between unplanned pregnancy, abortion and domestic violence were highly rated. The Supporting All Choices stream had an interesting mix of both clinical and counselling, research and practice and the DV stream as it flowed well from one presenter to the next. Counselling for late TOP.. so sensitive and caring..brought a tear to my eye. Jane Caro s key note address was also a standout for many respondents. I loved the keynote address by Jane Caro-her ability to humanise/normalise the issue in such an engaging way was a great start to a great conference. Jane Caro..hysterical and empowering. Some content was deemed less useful than others such as the content regarding contraception and some attendees felt that there was too much emphasis on medical abortion. I felt that there might have been a bit too much time devoted to models of MTOP provision. Attendees were asked to provide feedback on other aspects of the conference including coordination, the venue, value for money and catering. Over 70% of respondents rated their overall satisfaction as excellent, the lowest overall satisfaction rating received was average from one attendee. Respondents liked the two day conference format with the conference drinks networking conference drinks, mixture of speakers and the venue. 5 CONFERENCE REPORT: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IN AUSTRALIA, BRISBANE, AUGUST 2017

6 Many respondents thanked and praised the venue for hosting the event. However, the catering received the most negative feedback especially for those with a special dietary requirement. No choice for lunch was extremely disappointing. I have coeliac disease and was disappointed in the food. Fruit and salad for two days is not conductive to concentration. Attendees also made suggestions regarding the logistics of the concurrent sessions, such as allowing more time to between sessions, better chairing, and especially time keeping of sessions to allow for questions and equity of speakers. Respondents also requested more time for questions and discussion after speakers. Some suggested having no concurrent sessions due to stream envy, or not being able to choose between sessions, and potentially having some interactive workshops. Difficult to choose between streams to attend sometimes. Would be good to have streams repeated so as not to miss anything. The only difficulty I had was I couldn t attend all of the workshop stream and I had overlapping interests. Speakers did not keep to time meaning no time for questions in most sessions really unfortunate. Some attendees would like to see more workshop type streams and streams dedicated to specific professions for example a nurse s stream. All of this feedback will be used to improve our future conferences. 89% of survey monkey respondents said that the conference had an impact on how they would do things in their role in the future. The main changes mentioned were: Recognising the link between unplanned pregnancy, abortion and domestic violence/ Asking about or screening women for signs of reproductive coercion. Working more in collaborative partnerships regarding abortion law reform. Making stronger links and networks, most notably among medical abortion GPs. Have the impetus to speak about and integrate work on reproductive coercion and violence against women more thoroughly in the organisation. I will be a much better advocate for young women and women who access unplanned pregnancy counselling and abortion services, because I have a much stronger understanding of who these women are and why they access such services. I will be more aware and continue to work towards improving access for the most vulnerable women. 6 CONFERENCE REPORT: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IN AUSTRALIA, BRISBANE, AUGUST 2017

7 OUR NEXT CONFERENCE We are delighted to announce that our next conference will take place on 1-2 August 2019 in Brisbane. Information about submitting abstracts, keynote speakers and registration will be available at the end of In the meantime pencil the dates into your diary and get excited! If you need any inspiration to make the commitment to attend our next conference check out some of the highlights and comments from our 2017 conference: Seeing my colleagues keeps me rejuvenated, gives me the boost to keep going. The CbyC team are always an inspiration and a highlight for me. The entire 2 days was excellent, something I m already looking forward to again in 2 years. The breadth of topics and the knowledge and passion of speakers and attendees was really impressive and the vibe was very special. I feel very inspired by it! Thank you :) Didn t expect to laugh so much!! The networking drinks were a fantastic opportunity to meet and chat to others - it was done very well. Fantastic conference, very well organised and very enjoyable and informative. Networking and collegiate discussions were a highlight. No lows. To many highlights to choose. Amazing conference for a small organisation to organise. A huge thank you for coordinating such an amazing and intelligent group of people to share knowledge and learn from each other. Thank you! Highlights: the sense of all together now. The highlight for me was seeing the amazing advocacy work that has taken place in this space all around the country for a long time. The conference really reinforced that we ve come a long way, but have a long way to go. I really enjoyed how bold people were - we didn t just scratch the surface, we dove right in. It really was a magical two days. Lows? Too short! I wanted to be able to split myself between the sessions. The revelation of reproductive coercion - not just in the setting of abortion but as a feature of DV itself. I think this was eye opening to many. Highlight was Jane Caro s talk and the new people I was able to meet and will be networking with in the future. The only low was the presence of the protestors. It was reinvigorating as have been in the field for over 10 years and great to be more aware of work being done interstate and internationally. The conference was excellent, thoroughly educational, inspiring, humbling and motivating. Thank you for an exceptional conference. Just a big thank you to the organising committee on a job well done. I can only imagine the amount of time and work that went inti it and overall it was an excellent conference with an array of presentations and a good mix of topics. Please do it again. I have attended all of your conference from the first one back at the Medical School in Herston and they just get better and better! Overall a really high quality conference and I would come next time. 7 CONFERENCE REPORT: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IN AUSTRALIA, BRISBANE, AUGUST 2017