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spindles · 02-20-2006, 02:29 AM

Abortion is a bit of a touchy issue. I *do* have some reservations about this drug being available and they are largely not medical at all.

1. By having abortion as a medical procedure, it makes it inherently bigger in the mind of the mother. This has an affect of (I hope) making people thinking about abortion, think pretty hard. If introducing this drug makes abortions easier it may be an undesirable side affect.

2. I would guess that there is a lot of counselling involved with going through this procedure. There is probably already a lot in place to make sure this counselling is offered/easily available at whichever clinic at whixh this procedure is performed. I hope that if this drug is introduced, that the counselling options are also easily accessible from an alternative source (i.e. the GP that fills in the prescription).

I am not anti-abortion at all and I think we need to recognise that there are legitimate reasons to abort a baby. This does not mean that we need to make it as simple as "popping a pill", as I think there are wider ramifications.

In terms of politicans versus experts - I really think this should be treated just like any other drugs - we have a team of experts whose job is to make a decision about whether we can use it. We *also* have duly elected representatives who oversee this process. What we saw occur this week was this in action (a representative trying to block a particular thing, and democaracy at work to remove that block). Unfortunately, I think our pollies got tied up in an abortion vs anti-abortion debate on this drug, as if the minute this drug reaches the street a million babies will be aborted - this is just a ridiculous situation.

02-20-2006, 02:29 AM	#8 (permalink)
spindles Mine is an evil laugh Location: Sydney, Australia	Abortion is a bit of a touchy issue. I do have some reservations about this drug being available and they are largely not medical at all. 1. By having abortion as a medical procedure, it makes it inherently bigger in the mind of the mother. This has an affect of (I hope) making people thinking about abortion, think pretty hard. If introducing this drug makes abortions easier it may be an undesirable side affect. 2. I would guess that there is a lot of counselling involved with going through this procedure. There is probably already a lot in place to make sure this counselling is offered/easily available at whichever clinic at whixh this procedure is performed. I hope that if this drug is introduced, that the counselling options are also easily accessible from an alternative source (i.e. the GP that fills in the prescription). I am not anti-abortion at all and I think we need to recognise that there are legitimate reasons to abort a baby. This does not mean that we need to make it as simple as "popping a pill", as I think there are wider ramifications. In terms of politicans versus experts - I really think this should be treated just like any other drugs - we have a team of experts whose job is to make a decision about whether we can use it. We also have duly elected representatives who oversee this process. What we saw occur this week was this in action (a representative trying to block a particular thing, and democaracy at work to remove that block). Unfortunately, I think our pollies got tied up in an abortion vs anti-abortion debate on this drug, as if the minute this drug reaches the street a million babies will be aborted - this is just a ridiculous situation. __________________ who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?