FAMILY PLANNING ASSOCIATION (FPA) NZ:

In the early 1900s NZ’s public policy was strongly influenced by eugenic ideology (immigration restriction, sterilization, race segregation, selective breeding of superior stock, the biological threat of ‘inferior types’, and the need for recording and controlling human heredity).  Dr MacGregor, the Inspector of Hospitals blamed the welfare system for allowing ‘the unfit to breed’.  Dr W. A. Chapple and others called for compulsory sterilization of the ‘unfit’.

Eugenics philosophy was the justification for the Mental Defectives Amendment Act 1928.  The Act came short of banning marriage of ‘mental defectives’ and this prohibition was severely criticised by what is now the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers.

The ‘Social Hygiene Society’ was formed in Christchurch in 1916 and distributed pamphlets and books concerning venereal disease, which had become a problem with troops returning home WW1. This was in opposition to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union that promoted chastity and pure living.

In 1935 a meeting was called by Freda Cook and Elsie Freeman (Locke) that convened a birth control group, and 1936 saw the forming of the Sex Hygiene and Birth Regulation Society.  Its aims were to educate NZers on the need for birth control and sex education.  One of their major aims was to reduce the size of families. (FP pioneer Mary Dobbie wrote: “Eight children, no bath, no wash tub, copper and a tap in an outside yard and women struggling with washing in bitter weather”.)  Amid an outcry from the authorities and ‘polite society’, FP began to promote the benefits of birth control.

The McMillan Inquiry of 1937 revealed that at least one pregnancy in 5 ended in abortion, and that the majority of women dying from illegal abortions were married with 4+ children.

In 1939 the organisation was renamed the Family Planning Association.

During the WW2 soldiers heading abroad were issued with condoms and women at home were cautioned by the media to ‘show sexual restraint’. Overseas travel led to greater acceptance of contraception.

After WW2 and the full horror of the Holocaust, the eugenics movement was discredited and it was ‘repackaged’ so as to avoid the direct connection with birth control and the eugenics of the Nazi regime.  (This is was Margaret Sanger did as she formed IPPF.)

In 1951 FPA’s first national conference was held in Lower Hutt.  Their first clinic opened in 1952.  The medical profession vehemently opposed the FPA, seeing them as a lay organisation interfering in medical matters.

1954 the Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents led to it being made illegal to provide or discuss contraception with people aged under 16.

1957Auckland FP clinics began routine cervical smears, a radical practice at the time.

1961 the contraceptive pill became available in NZ.

1965 the NZ Branch of the British Medical Assoc ethical committee advised doctors against prescribing the pill to unmarried women, saying that to facilitate extra-marital relationships was not in keeping with the highest ideals of the medical profession.

1974 FP called for abortion to be made legal for woman with an early unwanted pregnancy.

1977 doctors gained the power to prescribe contraception to people aged under 16.  Twelve years later the law preventing people from providing those aged under 16 with information about contraception was repealed.

FPA survived through its own funding efforts until 1972 then received some government support.

Early 1980s a national strategy was developed and training programmes for parents, school teachers, community workers, nurses and other professionals. 

Condoms were promoted as a means of reducing the risk of STI and HIV/AIDS and as a method of contraception. 

Treaty of Waitangi issues were addressed and in 1990 Te Puawai Tapu, an independent organisation that works to improve Maori sexual and reproductive health, was formed.

1993 central funding ceased after health sector reforms and began to function through contracts with four regional health authorities and the Public Health Commission. It is only partially Govt funded.

2008 FP is “still calling for the strategy to be properly resourced and implemented, so that negative outcomes such as unwanted pregnancy, abortion, HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer and sub-fertility can be reduced.”

FPA operates:

v      30 clinics.

v      32 school-based clinics and outreach centres.

v      15 health promotion units working with diverse sectors of society including parents, young people, community groups and professionals.  Goes into prisons, maraes, English language schools, alternative education centres, work places, etc.

v      International development unit carries out advocacy and projects to help people in developing countries especially in the Pacific region.

v      As a fully registered private training establishment since 1996 and provides professional development services through its Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch offices.

v      A Resource Unit that is the largest producer of sexual and reproductive health resources in NZ and has the only specialist sexual and reproductive health library in NZ.

v      Love byte web shop

v      A Youth website called The Word. (Interesting name!)

They recently put together a DVD for the Deaf Community with a $10,000 grant from the Deaf Development Fund.  This uses sign language to communicate its message.

PRAYER POINTS:

I have included many scriptures for us to use as a double edged sword.  This is THE WORD.

v      Repent of any involvement in FP, seeking of advice from them, by yourself and your family.  Separate yourself, your present and future family from FP and declare that advice will be sought from The Word of God.  Pray cleansing of your family line by the blood of Jesus.

v      Pray Isaiah 61 for yourself, your family, for NZ – for deliverance, for the captives to be set free, etc.  Ps 3:7-8; Ps 18:1-15

v      FPA Council Members: 

      President – Linda Penno;

      Deputy-President – Tammy Steeves;

      Members – Hon Katherine O-Regan, Wendy Ritchie;

      Maori Reps – Lyn Harrison, Cathrine Holland;

      Youth Reps – Tegan Ahuriri, Catherine Tamaseu-Russell;

      Immediate Past President – Helen Eskett.

v      Pray at/for your local FP office/clinic, unobtrusively, e.g. walk around boundary, (like Joshua expect that every place where you put your feet will be given to you. Jos 1:3), take God’s presence inside as you study the leaflets and pray.  Pray at/for your local high school clinic in the same manner. 

      Pray for God to station angels at the doors to block entry of those seeking advice, to do battle  

      with Satan masquerading as a servant of righteousness.  Heb 1:14; 2 Cor 11:13-15

v      Pray for all veils to be torn off FP, and off NZ concerning FP, off all 10 arenas, so the real truth will be exposed and dealt with permanently.  When Jesus died the veil in the temple was torn and the way opened for people to come to The Truth.  Mk 15:38; 2 Cor 3:14-18

(The arenas are: Church, Family, Government, Health, Education, Business, Law/Justice, Media, Sport & Recreation, Art & Entertainment.)

v      Pray for all deception and false teaching to be exposed and dealt with permanently; for individuals, families, NZ to be delivered and set free from FP.  Prov 26:24-26; 2 Cor 4:1-6

v      Pray for divine correction by the finger of God to occur; for the very foundations on which FP in NZ has been established to crumble completely so the whole structure collapses; for every root to shrivel and die, and all fruit to cease; for the Lord Jesus Christ to drive out demons and the principalities and powers behind FP by the finger of God so the Kingdom of God will come upon NZ filling the vacuum left.  Luke 11:20; 1 Sam 2:1-2; book of Jude has verses that can be used e.g. v9 “The Lord rebuke FP.”

v      Pray for doors currently open to FP to be closed: funding, bookings, clinics in schools, approval in media; that every unholy tie between them and other individuals and organisations will be permanently severed.  What we close no-one can open.  Open doors in the public arena in all the other 9 arenas listed above, for the Church, for public understanding and approval to dramatically arise.  What we open no-one can close.

v      Pray for the Body of Christ in NZ to rise up and fill the gaps that will be left by FP with a holy work done with servant hearts filled with love and compassion, providing solutions, sharing the gospel “not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.”

1 Thess 1:5  (Jesus Christ is The Solution.)

      Pray for the Lord to prepare parents for their role of educating their children in these matters.