Australian parliament passes abortion drug legislation
The Australian parliament today voted to clear the regulatory path for an abortion drug, ending two weeks of emotional debate that saw several politicians disclose their own experiences with abortion.
The House of Representatives approved a bill to strip regulatory authority over the abortion drug mifepristone – also known as RU-486 – from the federal health minister and hand it to the country’s main drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The TGA regulates all other drugs in Australia, but a 1996 law put control of RU-486 in the hands of the health minister. Since 2003, that position has been held by Tony Abbott, a staunch Catholic who once warned of an abortion “epidemic” in Australia.
Last week, the Senate voted 45-28 in favour of the bill, effectively clearing the way for the drug’s use in Australia.
“It is a winner for Australian women and their families and also a winner for the House of Representatives,” said Senator Lyn Allison, one of the bill’s co-authors and leader of the centre-left Democrats party.
Allison – who made headlines by revealing in a Senate speech that she once had an abortion – said the drug could be available in Australia “within a year”.
Abortion has been legal in Australia for the past 30 years, but is regulated under state law. The procedure is funded by the public health system, and there is little debate among politicians over whether it should remain legal.
Nevertheless, the debate over RU-486 echoed many of the themes heard in the United States.
Throughout the debate, the health minister steadfastly maintained he was capable of making an objective decision on RU-486, despite his outspoken opposition to abortion.
But in an impassioned speech to parliament on Wednesday, Abbott decried Australia’s abortion rate as a “legacy of shame”, that was worn “by some as a badge of liberation from old oppressions”.
Abbott said he was dismayed by the vote, in which a show of voices indicated such an overwhelming support for the bill that no formal vote count was taken.
“I am disappointed that the bill has passed, but am confident that the TGA will exercise its additional responsibilities with the utmost professionalism,” Abbott said in a statement.
Prime Minister John Howard allowed members of his centre-right coalition government to vote with their conscience on the bill, rather than along party lines.
In a poignant speech late yesterday, one of Howard’s most senior ministers, Treasurer Peter Costello, described how 18 years ago he faced the choice of whether to allow doctors to abort his unborn child as his pregnant wife lay unconscious in the hospital. Although deciding against abortion, he stressed it was important he had been given the choice.
