Someone Who Would Love You

- Babette Francis Herald Sun 4 April 2006

In mid-March the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced there had been two more deaths of women after they had used RU486 for abortion. These new deaths did not happen in California where the previous four deaths had occurred, so it was not a local problem caused by a "bad batch" of the drug. Prior to the recent two deaths, Michael Greene in the New England Journal of Medicine (1 December 2005) had estimated that abortion with RU486 was ten times more dangerous than surgical abortion. Now, on a rough calculation, it appears to be fifteen times more dangerous.

The Gang of Four Senators, Fiona Nash (National), Judith Troeth (Liberal), Lyn Allison (Democrat) and Claire Moore (Labor) who tabled the Bill to remove control of RU486 from Health Minister, Tony Abbott, were very vocal immediately after their victory in unleashing RU486 into the control of the Therapeutic Goods Administration. They were collectively observed at drinks celebrating their victory.

Family First Senator, the Hon. Steve Fielding, who displayed on his website a picture of the invitation to the celebratory drinks party pinned to the office door of one of the pro-RU486 Senators, was ordered by the President of the Senate to remove the picture. Perhaps the Senators were embarrassed to appear to be celebrating the release of a drug which not only kills unborn babies but has also resulted in the deaths of several mothers.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration, which now has control over the importation of
RU486, has a mixed record - think of arthritis drugs Vioxx and Celebrex - approved but now under a cloud because of association with heart attack deaths.

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, commenting on the new deaths said: "The FDA has pulled other drugs that have caused fewer deaths and less severe complications than RU486. Why the double-standard for an abortion drug that is now linked to the deaths of seven healthy women and over 850 other reported complications - some of them life-threatening? Two more families are grieving because the FDA refuses to pull this
dangerous drug from the market".

Fresh from their RU486 victory, the Gang of Four has made a submission to our Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, requesting that Australian Aid be used to promote "reproductive rights for women" (code words for abortion) in East Timor. Currently Aus-Aid cannot be used for abortion overseas. The Senators seem oblivious to the recent admission by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities that legalizing abortion does not reduce maternal mortality. Poland and Ireland where abortions are illegal have among the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. The UN now states that what women need is better maternal care and the presence of skilled attendants at births. This is how Australian Aid money should be spent.

East Timor is predominantly a Catholic country, and the Senators advocacy for abortion as a solution to poverty will go down like a lead balloon. Perhaps what the Senators should be lobbying for is a better deal between East Timor and Australia over the oil deposits in the Timor Sea.

Since the two new RU486 deaths in the USA were publicized by the FDA, there has been a welcome silence from our Gang of Four Senators. Let's hope it stays that way - unless they would like to admit they were wrong.

I feel sorry for Senator Lyn Allison. During the RU486 debate she said she had an abortion when she was l8, and if she had not, she would not be a Senator today. When she retires - or more likely - loses her seat at the next election, I wonder what she will think of her faustian bargain. Her only child would now have been around 42 years of age - she has lost, as Bob Ellis said about all abortions, "someone who would have loved her".