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RU486 Medical Abortion - Campaign Success!
On 16 February 2006, the RU486
Private Members Bill passed through the Federal Parliament’s House of
Representatives. This means that the Federal Health Minister no
longer has the power to veto any application to allow RU486 to be used
in Australia. Instead, the appropriate medical and scientific experts at
the Therapeutic Goods Administration have the power to assess RU486 and determine whether Australian women will have access to the
drug.
By removing political
interference from medical decision-making, the bill’s passing is a
victory for common sense and good governance.
The Issue
In the early 1990's,
RU486 (also called 'mifepristone',
sometimes referred to as the 'abortion
pill') was available in Australia
through the World Health Organisation's
international trials of the medication.
The results of the trials demonstrated
that RU486 was safe, effective and an
acceptable method of pregnancy
termination for women. The drug has been
legal and easily accessible in many
countries around the world since the
198s. However, the anti-choice
movement mounted a scare campaign about
RU486 as expectations grew that the drug
would be approved for use in Australia.
In June 1996 the
Australian Therapeutic Goods Act was
amended to introduce special procedures
for drugs such as RU486, which are
intended to be used to induce medical
abortion. Under this amendment the
Health Minister is required to approve
the importation, evaluation,
registration and listing of these drugs
and any such ministerial approval must
be tabled in both houses of parliament
within 5 sitting days. This requirement
for ministerial approval does not apply
where these drugs are intended for use
for purposes other than for medical
abortion.
This type of restriction
applies to very few therapeutic drugs.
The restriction on RU486 was introduced
at the behest of then-Senator Brian
Harradine, an anti-choice supporter who
held the balance of power in the Senate
at that time. It was the result of
a political deal with the major parties,
who needed Harradine's support to move
through other key legislation, and
Harradine himself, who was also
responsible other anti-choice measures
including the Family Planning Guidelines
introduced in relation to AUSAid
funding. These restrictions
prevented any organisations working in
developing countries who received
Australian aid money, from providing any
training, education or information
around safe abortion - despite well-publicised
figures which estimate almost 70,000 of
the world's poorest women die annually
from unsafe abortion. The AUSAid
restrictions remained in place until
March 2009, when they were overturned by
Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen
Smith after extensive lobbying by Greens
Senators and reproductive health groups.
The requirement of
ministerial approval for RU486
discouraged pharmaceutical companies and
organisations from applying to
distribute mifepristone in Australia. As
the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)
application process works on a cost
recovery basis, the expense involved for
the sponsoring company can be
significant. Companies were unwilling to
undertake this expense for mifepristone,
when the Minister may have moved to
overturn the approval by the Therapeutic
Goods Administration. There were no
guidelines for Ministerial approval and
the Federal Minister for Health at the
time, Hon Tony Abbott MP, was
anti-choice.
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The Campaign
The debate
began in October 2005 when
the Australian Democrats
Senate Leader Lyn
Allison flagged that she
would seek to amend the TGA
to remove the Harradine
restriction. At the
same time, Cairns
obstetrician and
gynaecologist Dr Caroline De
Costa announced that she was
applying to the Therapeutic
Good Administration to
become an authorised
prescriber of RU486.
The push to
remove the restriction was
then strongly taken up by
Liberal MHR Dr Sharman
Stone, both in the media and
with her parliamentary
colleagues. Dr Stone's
position was soon supported
by a number of key
parliamentarians, such as
then-Ministers Helen Coonan,
Kay Patterson, Dr Brendan
Nelson, and Labor's Julia
Gillard (then Shadow Health
Minister), Senators Jan
McLucas and Claire Moore,
and Greens Senator Kerry
Nettle. Democrats
Senator Lyn Allison
continued to be at the
forefront of debate around
RU486.
Women's and
health organisations such
as Children by Choice,
Reproductive Choice
Australia, Australian
Medical Association and the
Royal Australian New Zealand
College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists spoke out in
favour of the lifting the
ban.
Federal
Health Minister Tony Abbott
attempted to manipulate the
debate by requesting limited
advice on the use of RU486
from the Chief Health
Officer. Abbott
twisted the information
provided to him, suggesting
that rural and regional
health services and GPs were
not equipped to provide
Ru486 to women. This claim
sparked outrage from the
medical community, and
organisations such as the
Rural Doctors Association
strongly defended their
members' capacity to
appropriately provide
medical care for women.
By
mid November it looked like
a vote was going to held on
the ban by the end of the
year. Reproductive
Choice Australia strongly
argued that the vote should
not be based on conscience,
but any amendment should be
sponsored by the Government
as a policy position and
voted on party lines (like
all other Health
legislation). In early
December, the Prime Minister
agreed to
allow parliament to
debate the issue in February
2006, in the form of a
private member's bill and a
conscience vote.
A conscience
vote means that each MP must
decide their position, not
their political party.
Pro-choice supporters were
active in contacting their
representatives and ensuring
support for the lifting of
the restrictions was heard.
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The Results
The final vote on the Bill was
carried on voices only and the support by MPs was overwhelming. Below is
the House of Representative vote result on the second reading of the
Bill.
House of Representative vote
AYEs
Adams, Albanese, Bailey, Baird,
Beazley, Bevis, Billson, Bird, J. Bishop, Bowen, Brough, A. Burke, Cobb,
Corcoran, Costello, Crean, Danby, Edwards, Elliot, Ellis, Ellis,
Emerson, Entsch, L. Ferguson, M. Ferguson, Fitzgibbon, Gambaro, Garrett,
Gash, Georganas, George, Georgiou, Gibbons, Gillard, Grierson, Griffin,
Haase, Hall, Hatton, Henry, Hoare, Hockey, Hull, Hunt, Irwin, Jenkins,
Jensen, Johnson, Jull, Keenan, Kerr, King, Laming, Lawrence, Ley,
Lindsay, Livermore, Macfarlane, Macklin, May, McArthur, McClelland,
McMullan, Melham, Moylan, Nairn, Nelson, O’Connor, Owens, Pearce,
Plibersek, Price, Prosser, Quick, Ripoll, Roxon, Rudd, Scott, Sercombe,
T. Smith, S. Smith, Snowdon, Southcott, Stone, Swan, Tanner, C.
Thompson, K. Thomson, Ticehurst, Turnbull, Vamvakinou, Washer, Wilkie,
Windsor, Wood.
NOs
Abbott, Anderson, Andrews,
Baker, Baldwin, Barresi, Bartlett, B. Bishop, Broadbent, T. Burke,
Byrne, Cadman, Causley, Ciobo, Downer, Draper, Dutton, Farmer, Fawcett,
Ferguson, Forrest, Hardgrave, Hartsuyker, Hayes, Howard, Katter, D.
Kelly, J. Kelly, Lloyd, Markus, McGauran, Murphy, Neville, O’Connor,
Panopoulos, Pyne, Randall, Richardson, Robb, Ruddock, Schultz, Secker,
Slipper, Somlyay, Tollner, Truss, Tuckey, Vale, Vasta, Wakelin.
Women MPs make the difference
In both Houses of Parliament,
women senators and MPs overwhelmingly supported the Bill. This will
please many of our supporters who have campaigned over the years for
more women in Parliament!
THANK YOU…
Children by Choice would like to
thank all our members and supporters for your efforts to make our RU486
campaign a success. Many thanks to everyone who contacted their Senators
and Member of Parliament. Your voice made a difference!
Children by Choice would like to
pay tribute to the courage, strength and commitment of the four senators
who sponsored the RU486 Private Members Bill in the Senate:
Senator
Claire Moore (QLD ALP)
Senator Fiona Nash (NAT NSW)
Senator Lyn
Allison (VIC Dems)
Senator Judith Troeth (LIB VIC).
These
senators worked very hard promoting the importance to Australian women
of the Bill and enlisting their Senate and HOR colleagues support.
Special thanks to Senator Claire Moore and her staff for their support
of Children by Choice during the debate.
Reproductive Choice Australia
(RCA) led the RU486 campaign. RCA garnered
public support for the Private Members Bill, informed MPs, the media and
the public about RU486. In conjunction with the Australian
Reproductive Health Alliance, RCA produced a briefing document
RU486/Mifepristone: A factual guide to the issues in the Australian
debate. To read this report, go to
http://www.arha.org.au/Resources_and_Links/RU486/ARHA-RCA_RU486REPORT.pdf
When will RU486 become
available to Australian women and their doctors?
As of April 2009, no
pharmaceutical company has applied to import and distribute RU486 in
Australia. This means the drug is administered under the
Authorised Prescribers Act, which governs the prescriptions of
medication not distributed by a company within Australia.
For women to have access to RU486, their doctor must apply to
the Therapeutic Goods Administration for approval to import and supply
the drug to their patients only.
Currently, a
limited number of medical practitioners have applied to the Therapeutic Goods
Administration (TGA) and been granted approval to prescribe RU486.
Due to the limitations of the Authorised Prescriber Act, RU486 can only
be prescribed to women in 'life-threatening or otherwise serious'
circumstances - in other words, for women who are unable medically to
undergo a surgical abortion or other similar situations. RU486 is
not a choice for women choosing to access an abortion.
More about
information about RU486 is available
here.
For more information, please
contact
campaign@childrenbychoice.org.au
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