Looking, looking, looking - for evidence that Abbott isn't telling another whopper

 

Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott explains his historical position on reproductive technology in January 2013:

 

In the run-up to the 2005 budget, more concerned than ever to rein in Medicare costs, the government proposed to increase safety net thresholds and to limit older women’s access to IVF. It’s a matter of record that I considered resignation over the safety net decision. Perhaps not going ahead with the IVF restrictions was my colleagues’ way of atoning for a decision I deplored.

 

"My attempt to excuse the then government's misguided intention, once it had been leaked, has given rise to a persistent myth: that I'm against IVF," Mr Abbott writes. "In fact, during my time as health minister, the number of women accessing IVF and Medicare support for IVF rapidly increased. I have never been opposed to IVF.

 

Really? So all I have to do is look for supporting documentation, right?
Unsurprisingly what I found did not reflect Abbott's fractured version of events.

 

This is Tony Abbott for the record on a number of occasions in April 2005:

 

Abbott used ABC radio to press home his point about the financial side. There was "some evidence", he said, that doctors had substantially lifted their charges and action would be taken if "profiteering" was found. The Government should name the clinics where rates had shot up. Abbott went on to claim the safety net had resulted in "a lot more money going into the pockets of people getting IVF treatment".

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Does the Health Minister's reasons for limiting the number of Medicare funded IVF treatments extend to other procedures?
TONY ABBOTT: There needs to be some restraint when it comes to the availability of taxpayer funds for non-essential procedures.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: So are there other procedures apart from IVF that you'd apply the same logic to?
TONY ABBOTT: None that you've raised with me?  

 

Then came Tony Abbott's explanation that a cut would be legitimate given that IVF was an elective rather than life-saving treatment. "If non-essential treatment is funded endlessly, medical costs blow out endlessly, and responsible governments have to try to ensure that we give good value to taxpayers, as well as good value to patients," he said.

 

Liberal Party women have demanded the government dump its plans to limit access to Medicare-funded IVF treatments, telling Canberra to stay out of the nation's bedrooms.

The NSW Liberal Women's Council said the government had no right to intervene in such a personal issue as a woman's right to have a child.

The council's 100 members unanimously passed a motion calling on federal cabinet to rethink plans to limit IVF access.

The government is considering placing a cap on the number of Medicare-funded IVF treatments to a total of three for women over 42 and three a year for women under that age.

The move would save the government just $7 million a year.

Health Minister Tony Abbott defended the planned cutbacks, saying the government could not afford to fund elective procedures.

"IVF treatment is not - it's very important, obviously - but it's not life saving treatment,"….

 

Mr. Abbott in May 2005:

 

Health Minister Tony Abbott has blasted the Victorian Law Reform Commission's call for single women and lesbians to be given access to IVF, saying it casts doubt on the wisdom of "expert" committees.