Women’s Health in the South East calls on political leadership to make a real difference to the lives and wellbeing of women in the Southern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne.

Women’s Health in the South East has released its call to action for all political parties seeking to be elected to Federal Parliament on May 18.

Women’s Health in the South East is one of 12 Women’s Health Services in Victoria who have 30 years of experience of working in the diverse South East Metropolitan region of Melbourne to provide services support to all women and prevent violence against women, increase gender equality and improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes for Women.

“We are calling upon all candidates and parties to make a real commitment to supporting the health and wellbeing of all women in the south east metro of Melbourne,” says Ms Kit McMahon, CEO of Women’s Health in the South East (WHISE).

“We are releasing this call to action on behalf of the community we support, the women we work with, our partners, stakeholders and clients,” Ms McMahon says.
WHISE is calling for action across four key areas:

•  Gender Equality including a commitment to a National Gender Equality Strategy, supporting the Australian Women’s Health Network
•  Ensuring that all women have access to sexual and reproductive health services, which supports reproductive choice regardless of where they live. This includes a commitment to investing in primary prevention for long-term outcomes, comprehensive relationship and sexuality education, provision of contraception and community information and legal safe accessible and affordable pregnancy termination services
•  Prevention of Violence Against Women including investment in recurrent funding models that reflect the nature and needs of diverse communities and strong tangible commitment to primary prevention in the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against women and their children
•  Ending Family Violence and providing funding support and services for all women regardless of culture, location and socio-economic position – all women should receive fair and equitable support. This includes supporting trauma and recovery services for women and children who have experienced family violence.

“We are proud to join with many of our sister health services and primary prevention colleagues in making the calls for action,” says Ms McMahon.

“We acknowledge the range of measures that have already been announced in this campaign and look forward to seeing more tangible forms of improving all women’s health across Australia.”

Please see the full call to action from WHISE: https://www.whise.org.au/our-work/campaigns/make-your-vote-count