Fit to Parent

Women with intellectual or physical disabilities are often denied the right to experience their sexuality, to have relationships and to start a family. They experience discriminatory attitudes from societies which question their ability to become parents. Their children are removed by social services and child welfare authorities and can lose their children in custody disputes simply because they are deemed unfit to parent as women with disabilities. Other alarming problems include forced sterilisation of young women, which is occuring in Australia at a rate currently unknown, however the practice has been heavily criticised by human rights groups & the United Nations. Natalie Rose Corrigan, student at Deaking University and writer at Daily Life questions what makes someone fit to parent, speaking on the different issues faced by Australian women with disabilities who would like to become parents.Samantha Connor, disability advocate living in Western Australia shares her experience of being a mother of six with muscular dystrophy. Jax Jacki Brown, disability & queer rights activist talks about her concerns with her access to adoption as a wheelchair user in a same sex relationship since Victoria passed a law to allow same-sex adoption in December last year. Her thoughts on the topic can also be found here. Groups mentioned on the show include, Women with Disabilities Australia, People with Disabilities Australia, Wheelie Good Mums (found on Facebook), and the Autistic Family Collective. Also mentioned were Reinforce and the Self Advocacy Resource Unit, which are self-advocacy organisations for people with an intellectual disability.