Politics
Thursday February 9, 2006
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Australian Senate Votes in Favor of Dangerous Abortifacient Drug RU486
Removes control over bill from Health Minister who opposes drug
By Gudrun Schultz
CANBERRA, Australia, February 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Australia’s Senate voted strongly in favor of a bill removing control over the chemical abortion drug RU486 from Health Minister Tony Abbott, in a conscience vote yesterday.
The senate passed the vote 45 to 28, with 27 of the 30 female senators voting in favor of the bill.
Mr. Abbott has refused to allow the drug into the country. Although he has been harshly criticized for the decision, under allegations of allowing his personal convictions to influence his leadership (Mr. Abbott is a Roman Catholic, opposed to abortion), he has argued that health considerations alone are sufficient to condemn the drug.
RU486 has been linked to the deaths of 10 women in Europe and the U.S. as well as multiple cases of severe complications including hemorrhages. The chemical causes abortion in women when taken in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The lining of the uterus breaks down under the drug and begins to bleed, and the infant dies. The mother then passes the dead body of the baby at some later date, usually within one to two weeks.
“A conscience vote is unusual, but it is necessary,'' Liberal Senator Guy Barnett, who opposed the law, told the Senate. “This is not about any drug, this is a killer drug and it is not a therapeutic drug.''
The House of Representatives will now debate the bill, which must pass the lower house vote before it will become law. Opponents to the bill have some hope that it will be blocked by the lower house vote, since the Senate vote revealed a split along gender lines—the House of Representatives has a higher number of male members.
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Abortion Pill a No Go in Australia says Health Minister
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05111503.html
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