Archbishop of Sydney

Statement on RU486

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
14/2/2006

Tonight debate will commence in the House of Representatives on the abortifacient drug RU486.  Pro-life and anti-life forces will be marshalling their arguments.  Parliamentarians will not be able to have a foot in each camp. Those who support introducing this pill are not pro-life.

1. In 1996 members of the newly elected Howard Government and the Beazley led Labor Opposition voted for an amendment to the TGA Act to require Ministerial responsibility and Parliamentary scrutiny of approvals to import and use RU486 for abortions.
   
2. In 1996 it was accepted that RU486 is not the same as other pills because it is destructive, causing abortions even into the second trimester.  Pills generally are used to heal, are therapeutic.  Pregnancy is not a disease.  Little has changed since 1996 except that the dangers from RU486 are better known.
   
3. In a democracy like Australia’s, parliaments are elected to govern.  The Westminster system means ministerial decision-making and parliamentary supervision; not shifting law-making on important moral issues to courts, much less to an unelected board partly funded by the pharmaceutical industry.
   
4. Majority opinion in Australia, except in the Senate, disapproves of the 80,000 a year government funded abortions in Australia and is looking for ways to reduce this death-toll, not risk increasing it.
   
5. The health risks to women of RU486 cannot be airbrushed out of existence.  Already significant numbers of women have died after taking the drug.  Hundreds in the U.S. have suffered ill effects.  RU486 will increase the danger of women suffering home alone miscarriages and will further trivialise the destruction of human lives.  The plight of women and the unborn will be worsened also by the likelihood of a thriving black market in the drug.  Already RU486 is sold over the internet, with no checks or controls.
   
6. The sectarian anti-Catholic attacks on the Minister for Health by parliamentarians and cartoonists are cheap and nasty, revealing a poverty of argumentation and a fear the tide is turning.
   
7. Future generations will look back on today’s encouragement of abortion the way we now look at owning slaves.  It is a sad irony that the first cross-party alliance of women in parliament should use its power to increase the opportunities for abortion, to attack life, rather than defend it.  These senators are out of touch with young women where 60% want to delay the introduction of the drug until there is more information on the health risks.

Public opinion is moving.  The tide is changing in Australia; not as fast as in the United States, but it is changing.  87% of Australians support finding ways to reduce the number of abortions.

The challenge is to encourage births, to encourage free personal choices for life, to give women the support and resources they need to give birth to their children.  This is the role of parliaments and governments.

A vote to make this drug available would diminish Australia.  I urge the Members of the House of Representatives to use their conscience vote to reflect the conscience of our nation.