A petition aiming to reduce the number of babies born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder has been presented to Parliament.
Tauranga man Christopher Ingram, 87, is on a mission to reduce the number of FASD babies.
The retired health professional is passionate about the issue, having had experience as a friend had adopted a baby to find out later they had FASD.
He learned if a pregnant woman drank any amount of alcohol, it could cause lifelong damage to the developing fetus.
His petition asks for signs to be displayed within and on the doors of every liquor store to ”inform pregnant mothers so they can make an informed choice to drink or not”.
“I want this sign in the doorway: ‘Pregnant? Don’t Drink’, to give them an opportunity to make a choice.”
On February 10, Ingram and a group of supporters, met Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford to pass on his petition to be taken to parliament.
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Tauranga man Christopher Ingram handing over his FASD petition to Bay Of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford. Photo / Ayla Yeoman
“The FASD petition was presented to the House on Tuesday 11 February and has been referred to the petitions select committee,” Rutherford said.
In a previous article, Ingram said: “When in parliament, I’m hoping it will receive full crossbench support from all MPs to be passed speedily to benefit the whole country.”
Rutherford said one of the requirements to present a petition to Parliament was to have an MP present the petition to the House before a select committee could consider it “and so I agreed to do that”.
In a statement to SunLive, Rutherford said the select committee would gather evidence which could include requesting written submissions from petitioners, inviting oral submissions, gathering information from relevant organisations, referring the petition to another select committee with relevant expertise, or referring it directly to a minister for response within 60 working days.
After that, the committee would release a report to the House, summarising its findings.
“The committee’s final report will be publicly announced on the Parliament website and may include recommendations to the Government,” Rutherford said.
“If it does, the Government must respond within 60 working days.”
4 comments
Slow death
Posted on 24-02-2025 07:10 | By Angels
If children born with this are doomed to a slow death and almost zero future.
Parent should be charged and penalised to doing this to another human. Knowingling doing it is so disgusting
Women should be criminally prosecuted . Sterilisation so does not happen again , jail.
Hmmm
Posted on 24-02-2025 14:48 | By Let's get real
It's not a problem that a petition can solve, it requires an intensive and long term multimedia attack on our cultural norms. We are so involved with alcohol that a simple poster will solve nothing. We need to target our youngsters in health education for a number of years and challenge the nonsense that we see in the pubs, clubs and sports clubs.
Being able to drink litres of alcohol doesn't make you a hero or a great bloke... It just makes you a blithering idiot with more money than sense.
May the causal factor pay for the problems they cause.
Posted on 24-02-2025 17:35 | By Watchdog
Slap a monstrous tax on the alcohol industry. Often the people they hurt have become addicted to that demon drink and end up unwittingly being in charge of a new life which is doomed to struggle all the way through. If you are a parent of such a child life for you and the child could be an extremely rough journey.
The Beer, spirits and wine industry should pay for this and other problems they cause in society.
Ban alcohol I say. Although legal, it's still a drug. If it wasn't, we'd all be drunk at work and drink driving everywhere
Posted on 26-02-2025 02:06 | By Helluvah
There's is plenty of evidence that proves alcohol is a drug that alters the brain perception and causes the human body to behave in ways it would never otherwise behave sober. It has no health benefits and it kills people directly and indirectly. And ANY AMOUNT can cause harm to an unborn baby (what a scary thought).
And yet we ignore the consequences (especially if we have never experienced those consequences ourselves) and continue to accept alcohol as a good thing as if it's needed! Just ban alcohol already! It's no good. Being legal doesn't make it any better. Its a killer and it should be held accountable for being a drug like it is, a legal drug that ruins lives but gathers mega revenue! Disgusting!
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