RU486 GETS APPROVAL, 20 YEARS ON
Who remembers the extraordinarily heated debate over the so-called “abortion drug” RU 486 back in 2006?
Dr. Leslie Cannold does. She recalls it as “one of the few times we got to see what our leaders really thought of women and the issues critical to them.”
Dr Cannold is the president of Reproductive Choice Australia and today she is “thrilled” that the drug will become widely available to Australian women.
This morning the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved an application to import the drug by a company set up by the reproductive health group, Marie Stopes International. Soon it will be freely available, not just from a handful of doctors.
Dr. Cannold told the Hoopla: “Six years ago Australian women worked together to remove the ban on the drug and we are delighted that all women are going to have access to it.”
“What is really pleasing is that at last women in the bush will have access to safe abortion that they currently do not have.”
Health Minister Tanya Pliberseck said: ‘‘For more than two decades tens of millions of women throughout the world have used RU486. This listing means Australian women will have the same options as women in over 46 countries including the UK, USA, New Zealand and in Europe.”
A ministerial veto over the drug was lifted by Parliament in 2006 but the drug has had only very limited availability because just 200 individual general practitioners were granted permission to import and prescribe the drug.
Mifepristone and misoprotsol ( together known as RU486 or the ‘abortion pill’) can be used to end a pregnancy up to nine weeks. It works by blocking the action of progesterone to cause a miscarriage early in the pregnancy.
The next testing debate, says Dr. Cannold will come when the federal government moves the drug onto the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) making it cheap and widely available to Australian women.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said in a speech to the Australian Medical Association that RU486 will be treated just like any drug. It was unclear whether under a Tony Abbott-led government that would be a routine matter, Dr. Cannold added.
However, Dr. Cannold is ready for that expected debate with anti-abortion activists.
She says the big work wil be done in a campaign to end the stigma around abortion.
“We want people to sign a pledge that they will not shame women who have abortions and speak up, not be silent, when other people do.”
On September 30 a “flash mob” will gather at 11 a.m. in Melbourne’s CBD to promote the cause: “Abortion A Fact of Life: Let’s end the stigma!” You can register for that event here.
MORE BY LESLIE CANNOLD
Abbott on abortion: Black&white
20 Responses to this article
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Rhoda August 30, 2012
Wow! What a wonderful job these girls are doing. After reading some of the debate about abortion in the US it’s a relief to know that attitudes to abortion here in Australia are taking us into the future and not back into the dark and dirty past.
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Kerry Cleary August 30, 2012
What happened to my story / comment? I really wanted to say what I said – my kids know, my husband knows, my ex-husband knows.. No privacy issues either as I have not named anybody.
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Tess August 30, 2012
Very good news indeed.
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The Huntress August 30, 2012
A big win for Australian women!
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Annie Also September 1, 2012
Thank you to all the women who have worked tirelessly for this cause. Women must have the right to cheap, safe, contraception no matter the method. Our bodies, our choice, our lives. Hopefully Abbott will not become PM in the future for he is certainly not a ‘friend’ of choice for women.
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Stella Burnell September 1, 2012
I’m so glad to know that Australia is on par with the rest of the world now. It has always been possible for a woman to have a safe abortion in the city – but for women in isolated and rural areas it was not so easy. Sometimes it was impossible. Women everywhere deserve to have the ability to choose what happens to their bodies – this is a great step forward for all of us. Congratulations to all involved !
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Wendy Green September 1, 2012
Why is it so hard for women to ‘choose what happens to their bodies’ when they ‘choose’ to have sex in the first place?
Why has sex become a pastime and not a genuine result of a loving relationship?
What ever happened to self-control?
Why is giving birth to a beautiful, new human being supposed to be such an abhorrent thing to women? I remember a time when falling pregnant – even if it was unplanned – was celebrated, now it seems the happiest of all events is seen as a scourge against a woman’s right to be … female???
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Debra September 2, 2012
Thank you for voicing what so many are thinking Wendy. This pill…….just a sad reflection on what human life is now worth to many.
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Wendy Green September 1, 2012
Oh and, let’s not forget the child’s right to life …
RU 486? R U serious??? -
Kage September 2, 2012
” I remember a time when falling pregnant – even if it was unplanned – was celebrated, now it seems the happiest of all events is seen as a scourge against a woman’s right to be … female???”
Wendy, while you’re certainly entitled to hold your own opinions on abortion, the above statement is patently untrue.
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Shannon September 2, 2012
Whilst I don’t wish to live in a world that denies women access to safe abortions, neither do I want to live in a world where it is trivialized. Women have the awesome ability to grow new human beings. With great power comes great responsibility…let’s use our power wisely
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Giverny September 3, 2012
Even if abortion (or ‘termination’ as it is more appropriately referred to as) was available on every corner for a minimal fee, I have very few doubts it would ever be ‘trivialised’ as you so offensively suggest, Shannon.
Terminating a pregnancy is a decision usually made with great thought, consideration, evaluation and trauma – it is not a simple, ‘trivial’ decision, and for many women it is an incredibly painful emotional experience.
There are many reasons why women may choose to terminate a pregnancy, and as RU486 is only administered up to nine weeks’ gestation, it is used at such an early period of pregnancy that the embryo does not even have a consciousness. To say that this mash of cells has an individual ‘right to life’ which should surpass the health and wishes of the mother carrying it, is non-sensical.And if your answer is, “BUT it’s a POTENTIAL human being!”, then to quote Richard Dawkins:
“But almost every cell in your body is a potential human being, given our recent advances in genetic engineering. Every time you scratch your nose, you have committed a Holocaust of potential human beings”. -
Giverny September 3, 2012
*Apologies: quote is Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation).
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Margot September 3, 2012
Thank you Giverny for summing it up so well. Further to that, where are the men in this whole equation? Once again, those opposed to abortion rights lay the blame, the burden and the guilt onto women. Women don’t “fall pregnant” spontaneously.
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Shannon September 3, 2012
Hi Giverny, and anyone else who was offended by my comment, my sincere apologies. It was not my intention to cause offence. Thanks for the reminder to be careful about how and where I express unsolicited opinions.
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Tess September 3, 2012
Actually, the worst contraception advice to offer someone is to “keep your legs together” as seen in places in the US where abstinence is taught over other forms of contraception, and teenage pregnancy rises.
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GM September 5, 2012
Celebrating killing your child in your own body? Are you out of our mind? Have you ever Googled “abortion grief”? Get real. Abortion ruins a woman’s life.
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Sandra October 16, 2012
Nobody celebrates abortion. What a foolish thing
to say. No wonder there is such a stigma surrounding terminations. It’s no one else’s business. Yes we use to celebrate unplanned especially teen ones by adopting the children out. Ridiculous. Grow up – this is a personal choice which requires no one else to stick their nose in.
