The Australian Christian Lobby have warned that legislation allowing women in the Australian Capital Territory to access abortion drugs like RU486 from a general practitioner will “cause more harm than good”.
The legislation was passed in the ACT’s Legislative Assembly earlier this week in a move which reportedly brings the territory into line with other Australian jurisdictions. While abortions have been legal since 1992, until now the procedure could only be carried out in an approved facility.
Wendy Francis, a spokesperson for the ACL, said that abortion drugs like RU486 “are not only harmful to the unborn child, but also to women”.
“The side effects can be alarming, and when women are sent home without the support of medical assistance this can be particularly distressing and even dangerous,” she said. “RU486/PG abortions cause hemorrhaging, vomiting, cramping and the potential for sepsis.”
Francis said the idea that the use of such drugs is a “quick and easy” fix is false.
“This process also denies women the opportunity to consider their decision or look at different options for unplanned pregnancies,” she said. “All human life is precious and this is just another way in which innocent lives are being tragically ended.”
Meanwhile the ACL has also this week urged the Northern Territory Government against decriminalising the possession and use of illegal drugs – currently under consideration by a government committee – and urged New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian to maintain her stance against the use of pill testing at music venues.
Welcoming the NSW Government’s announcement of an expert panel to investigate increased safety measures at music festivals, Kieran Jackson, director of the state branch of the ACL, said pill testing “can never guarantee the safety of an illegal drug – everyone’s physiology is different, so what’s safe for one person might be harmful or another”.
He said he agreed with comments from Troy Grant, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, that every illegal drug, no matter its chemistry, is “inherently dangerous”.
“No number of tests will ever ensure the safety of an illegal drug,” Jackson said. “Pill testing also normalises a culture of illegal drug taking, a practice and a culture which should never be endorsed.”
