Wine warnings 'to cause fear and guilt'

Brianna Chappell, left, and Julie Thomas, drinking wine at the Union Hotel in Adelaide yesterday, say pregnant women are already aware of the dangers of drinking. Picture: Kelly Barnes

PREGNANT women could be panicked into abortions if health warnings make them feel guilty about drinking, the Winemakers Federation has told a parliamentary inquiry into alcohol-related birth defects.
Australia's health ministers will make cigarette-style health warnings mandatory on bottles and cans of wine, beer and spirits, unless the alcohol industry brings in its own labelling system within 18 months.

Winemakers and brewers are already using a pictogram of a pregnant woman, with a warning based on National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines that "it is safest not to drink while pregnant".

But the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education is pushing for stronger mandatory messages that "drinking any alcohol can harm your unborn baby".

The Winemakers Federation has told the parliamentary inquiry into fetal alcohol spectrum disorder that cigarette-style warnings could scare pregnant women into aborting their babies.
"If the warning label states that the child could or may have been damaged, or is at risk of having neurological defects, this will likely create a sense of fear and guilt," its submission states.

"Some expectant mothers may be so concerned or in such a state of depression and guilt as to terminate the pregnancy based on their expectation that the fetus has been damaged."

Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists spokesman Steve Robson yesterday said he had "never seen or heard of" a pregnant woman wanting an abortion for fear of alcohol-related birth defects.

"We accept it's probably OK to have a drink now and then in pregnancy," he said.

Adelaide friends Brianna Chappell and Julie Thomas, drinking wine with lunch yesterday, said they would be influenced more by their doctor's advice than a label on the bottle.

Ms Thomas, 32, said women were well aware of the dangers of drinking during pregnancy.

"You choose a bottle by its label half the time, and you wouldn't like to take a bottle of wine to a dinner party with all that horrible branding over it," she said.

Ms Chappell, 23, said the existing warning label was "very small . . . The decision to drink or not drink while pregnant would be made before you've got the bottle of alcohol in your hands.

"It's too late if someone's already at the bar having a drink."

The Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia has told the inquiry that scientific evidence of the impact of low levels of drinking during pregnancy was "unclear or non-existent".

"Alarmist and simplistic statements have real potential to cause great harm if they lead to unwarranted anxiety, depression or terminations," its submission says.

But Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia chief executive David Templeman said fetal alcohol spectrum disorder was "totally preventable" if expectant mothers abstained from alcohol.

"Young people are more likely to drink to get drunk, and they could find themselves in an appalling situation, if they are pregnant, of having a child with all sorts of complications for the rest of their life," he said.