Australia Bill to Allow RU 486 Abortion Drug Introduced in Parliament 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 8, 2005
Canberra, Australia (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates in the Australian parliament have introduced a measure that would be the stepping stone for approving the dangerous abortion drug RU 486 there. The measure sets up a debate early next year on the issue.
Nationals Senator Fiona Nash introduced legislation that would take the decision for allowing the abortion drug out of the hands of pro-life Health Minister Tony Abbott and give it to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Prime Minister John Howard has said there will be no debate on the measure until next year.
Nash introduced the bill for himself and Liberal Judith Troeth, Democrats Leader Lyn Allison and Labor’s Claire Moore, according to a report in The Advertiser.
The Australian Senate had a passionate debate after the bill was introduced and Family First Senator Steve Fielding tried to stop Nash from putting it on the table. However, pro-life Nationals Senate Leader Ron Boswell said the best way for pro-life advocates to handle the measure would be to debate it and defeat it on a vote.
Abbott previously said the abortion drug should not be allowed to be sold in Australia. He cited an opinion from the government’s top health official and pointed to the deaths of women in the United States, Canada ad Sweden from the abortion drug.
Meanwhile, Renate Klein, a pro-abortion biologist and social scientist who is an associate professor in women’s studies at Deakin University in Melbourne, wrote a lengthy editorial Thursday encouraging the government not to approve the abortion drug.
"It is not safe and it will not expand women’s choices," she wrote. "I am a long-time feminist and health activist who is committed to women’s access to safe and legal abortion and I am getting exasperated with the pro-choice movement’s simplistic message about RU 486."
"Surely those using their conscience should vote against exposing Australian women to abortion drugs that can kill," she concluded.
