With a federal election now very close, the SPHERE Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Coalition has compiled a list of our key policy recommendations for advancing women’s health in Australia. Included in this request from Sphere are images you are welcome to share on Twitter and Instagram, including some suggested text wording.
Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health COVID-19 Coalition
Bulletin #18
23rd March 2022
Policy recommendations for the 2022 Election
With a federal election now very close, the SPHERE Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Coalition has compiled a list of our key policy recommendations for advancing women’s health in Australia. In this document we outline four evidence-based policy approaches that will make a real difference to the lives of Australian women:
- Remove barriers to contraceptive access by providing free contraception to women under 25 years and incentivising primary care practitioner training in contraceptive service provision
- Ensure availability of essential sexual and reproductive health services (particularly for rural and regional Australian women) through regional level planning, training and accountability for abortion access via publicly funded community and hospital-based services
- Expand the health workforce by enabling nurses and midwives to work to their full scope of practice in contraception and abortion care, with appropriate remuneration and training opportunities
- Monitor progress in the implementation of the National Women’s Health Strategy by developing a set of agreed upon key performance indicators and reporting progress against these on an annual basis
Click here for the full document and please share this bulletin widely with your colleagues, peers and professional networks.
The Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health COVID-19 Coalition meets bimonthly to discuss ways to address critical clinical, health service and workforce issues by developing evidence-informed consensus statements and policy and practice recommendations. Please contact us at [email protected] if you are interested in being involved.
Professor Danielle Mazza
Chair of the Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health COVID-19 Coalition
Director of SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women’s Sexual and
Reproductive Health in Primary Care
Shareable Resources
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
