The ACT Legislative Assembly today passed Australia’s first bill to protect the rights and choices of people with variations in sex characteristics in medical settings.
The legislation, the Variations in Sex Characteristics (Restricted Medical Treatment) Bill 2023, is the first time an Australian government has acted on international human rights bodies’ recommendations about intersex human rights, human rights minister Tara Cheyne said.
“This is an internationally significant reform in protecting the rights and choices of people with variations in sex characteristics,” Chief Minister Andrew Barr said.
“I am proud that the ACT is leading the nation to a better standard of care for people with variations in sex characteristics. I hope other jurisdictions will look at this legislation and follow a similar path.
“Today, we have shown that we care about the autonomy, consent, and safety of intersex people. This is a law to support Canberrans, but we hope its impact leads to changes elsewhere in how intersex people are treated in medical settings and society more broadly.”
The bill will uphold the ability of people with variations in sex characteristics to make their own decisions about non-essential medical treatments that affect their bodies, once they have capacity to do so.
“Deferrable and unnecessary medical interventions performed on children with variations in sex characteristics can result in poor health outcomes that affect the person for the rest of their life,” ACT health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said.
“This can include pain, trauma, and a need for ongoing medical treatment that would not have otherwise been required.”
The ACT government will establish a Variation in Sex Characteristics Psychosocial Support Unit at the Canberra Hospital with specialist staff to support intersex people and their families, and training packages and resources to support health professionals providing these services.
The government will also establish a new statutory oversight scheme and supports for parents and families of intersex children to navigate decisions and treatment pathways for their child.
“The government is taking a number of steps, both in the legislation and in the broader reform process, to make sure our workforce is supported and clinicians have the tools they need to continue their care for people with variations in sex characteristics,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“This legislation creates an additional layer of safeguarding to ensure that, where treatments can safely be deferred, this is done. Most importantly, it will give people with variations in sex characteristics more say in their own medical treatment.”
This legislation was a key commitment in the implementation of the Capital of Equality Strategy.
“It is an example of how the ACT provides leadership in human rights,” Ms Cheyne said. “I hope that other jurisdictions will follow the lead we are offering, so that these protections are extended to intersex people across Australia.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics report on persons reporting diverse sex-gender identity in the 2016 Census, “The American Psychological Association suggests there are 1 in 1500 births (66.7 per 100,000) where the genitalia are ambiguous, and there are other intersex conditions which do not show in the external genitalia”.
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