The lower House of Representatives will vote on Thursday on whether to remove the power of the health minister -- currently conservative, Catholic, anti-abortionist Tony Abbott -- to veto applications from companies and doctors who want to import and prescribe RU-486.
CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday he would vote against scrapping an effective ban on an abortion drug, adding it was the duty of parliament to make difficult decisions for the country.
The lower House of Representatives will vote on Thursday on whether to remove the power of the health minister -- currently conservative, Catholic, anti-abortionist Tony Abbott -- to veto applications from companies and doctors who want to import and prescribe RU-486.
The upper house Senate voted 45 to 28 last week to allow the responsibility for RU-486 applications to rest solely with the Therapeutic Goods Administration after two days of emotive, personal and passionate debate.
"There is a whiff in this whole debate of this being a little too difficult and controversial, so let's give it to somebody else," Howard told parliament.
"I am a little disappointed in that attitude because in the end we are elected to make decisions on difficult issues."
Howard has allowed MPs to vote freely on the issue. Advocates of RU-486 argue that approval should rest with health experts, while critics say the drug -- developed in France in the 1980s and used for terminating a pregnancy of up to 49 days -- is unsafe and an elected, accountable official should be in charge.
The emotive debate has pitted Howard against his heir apparent Treasurer Peter Costello who will vote for an end to the ministerial veto over the abortion drug.
Costello, recounting his personal experience, told parliament earlier on in the debate that he had to decide whether to abort an unborn child as his wife lay unconscious in hospital after falling ill.
"The choice I made was to continue both the treatment and the pregnancy. By the grace of God, both survived. I have no doubt that the law should not have prevented such a choice," he said.
RU-486, also known as Mifeprex or mifepristone, grabbed the spotlight last year after a government lawmaker asked for a review of the drug's effective ban because women in remote and rural areas had difficulty accessing surgical abortions.
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