Australia Pro-Life Catholic Doctors May Quit AMA Over Abortion Drug 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 2, 2006
Canberra, Australia (LifeNews.com) — A group of pro-life, Catholic doctors are set to resign from the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners because of their frustration with the two groups’ support for legalizing the dangerous abortion drug RU 486.
Dr. Terrence Kent, a doctor in Brisbane and the president of the Guild of St. Luke, a Catholic medical organization, said the group plans a meeting on Sunday to discuss whether to resign.
He expects the group "will be recommending that members resign from both the AMA and the RACGP."
Kent said neither medical association consulted with its members on a bill in the Australian parliament that would shift the decision for legalizing the abortion drug from pro-life Health Minister Tony Abbot, who declined to allow it, to the TGA.
Pro-abrotion MPs want the TGA to legalize the abortion pills, which are responsible for the deaths of eight women worldwide in the U.S., Canada, Sweden and the U.K. A bill to do that is up for debate this month.
"Not only does RU-486 always result in the death of an innocent human being, complications including maternal death make it totally unacceptable," Dr. Kent told the Courier Mail newspaper.
The paper reported that two doctors have already resigned from the AMA over its endorsement of the abortion drug.
Dr. Belinda Goodwin wrote to the AMA about her decision to quit the group and said comments from AMA president Mukesh Haikerwal to an Australian parliament committee endorsing the bill were "outrageous and send the wrong message to women."
Meanwhile, the Courier Mail reports that Monday’s edition of the AMA’s medical journal will carry a letter from Toowoomba GP Dr. David van Gend arguing against legalizing the abortion drug.
van Gend, who is not Catholic and is the Queensland secretary of the World Federation of Doctors who Respect Human Life, said he would not quite the AMA because he wants to fight its pro-abortion policies from within.
"RU-486 is unique among medical drugs as it takes life," van Gend told the Courier Journal. "The AMA should once again make clear that they do not advocate abortion on demand."
