ABC News Radio: Sex before Marriage, Abortion, Virginity
January 26, 2010
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PRESENTER: Dr Sharman Stone, the Women’s Weekly interview is one of the rights of passage for a new political leader, but there are dangerous issues there for any political leader to be talking about. Do you think Tony Abbott has gone where angels fear to tread talking about issues like sex before marriage and abortion?
STONE: Tony Abbott is a man who speaks frankly. He doesn’t mince his words. I think that’s the nature and the character of the man and certainly his views are well known. I don’t think there is any issue at all for the Australian public in being able to talk out loud about re-productive health or about our teenagers activities. I think that’s just a mark of a man who will say it like he feels it is. I think it is a quite modern responsible approach to leadership. You don’t pretend to be anything other than what you have always said you are. In Tony Abbot’s case; it’s a caring man, someone who is a family man. He himself has 3 daughters. He is also a modern man. He is very aware life is not like it was in the 20th Century, in particularly the early 20thcentury.
PRESENTER: In fact, the criticism is that he’s not a modern man. Some of the responses to his remarks have been that he is out of touch with modern people when he is talking about preserving virginity until marriage and he ignores the fact that people remain unmarried until much later in life now.
STONE: Well the realities of modern Australian life are that young people become sexually active and there is research showing that for a lot of young people, girls in particular, they regret sometimes being in situations where perhaps they have had too much to drink. I think it’s a very important issue for us that we make sure our young people are empowered and are able to be in control of their bodies. I think it’s a very old fashioned notion of course, that we just have the business of virginity as being something very, very sacred.
PRESENTER: In fact though the view put by Tony Abbott is exactly the one that you characterised there as belonging to an early generation. He’s talking about virginity as the greatest gift and the ultimate gift of giving.
STONE: I am not talking about virginity as a gift. I am talking about virginity as a biological state which used to hold very particular status, if you like. These days in some areas, in some religions, it is more important than in others.
PRESENTER: Is Tony Abbott out of touch with the Australian broad-stream community if he takes this view on virginity as an ultimate gift?
STONE: I think you need to explore the context in which a statement like that is made. I think the business of very intimate relationships between men and women is a very special thing indeed, but it also has very significant consequences for individuals in terms of their own health.
PRESENTER: What about Julia Gillard’s view that the women of Australia do not want to be lectured by Tony Abbott?
STONE: Well I don’t think the women of Australia, or men of Australia want to be lectured to by any politician. What you do with your own body is absolutely your own business. But it is very important, particularly for young people, that they do get support, in relation to issues like reproductive health; their own empowerment; their own capacity to do exactly what they want without being subjected to the most incredible peer pressure: And really I think Julia Gillard just wants to make political points. I have great respect for anybody who discusses what their particular values and views are. On the other hand I don’t believe that Tony Abbott for a moment is trying to force those views, his particular life values and his religious views on anyone at all.
PRESENTER: Sharman Stone thank you very much.
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