Monday October 18, 2010
Australian Court: Couple “Not Guilty” of Illegally Using RU-486
By Hilary White
CAIRNS, Australia, October 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A court in Queensland Australia found last week that a young Far North Queensland couple is not guilty of having unlawfully procured an abortion using the drug regimen RU-486. The decision is being used by lobby groups to push for the abolition of all remaining legal restrictions on abortion in Queensland.
When Tegan Leach, 21 and Sergie Brennan, 22, were charged in February of last year with attempting to procure a miscarriage and unlawfully supplying drugs to procure an abortion, a new debate was sparked on the safety and legality of the abortion drug RU-486.
Euphemistically referred to as “medical,” abortions using the RU-486 drug combination are legal in Australia, but only under the supervision of a doctor.
The couple was charged after police found empty blister packets of abortion drugs RU486 and Misoprostol during a search of their home on an unrelated matter. They admitted in police interviews that Leach had taken the drug, which had been imported by Brennan’s family in Ukraine.
Obstetrician, abortionist and lobbyist Dr. Caroline de Costa, who was instrumental in bringing the drug into Australia, issued a statement saying that the jury decision has effectively “decriminalised” RU-486.
“We believe that section 282 of the criminal code, which restricts abortion to cases in which the woman’s life or physical or mental health is threatened by continuing pregnancy, is therefore no longer relevant for a Queensland medical practitioner performing a medical abortion using those drugs, since a crime is not committed.”
“The decision in this case has in fact decriminalised the use by doctors of mifepristone (RU486) and misoprostol for the purpose of medical abortion in Queensland.”
Under Queensland law, a state described as Australia’s last “holdout,” abortion remains illegal except to protect the mother’s life or her “physical or mental wellbeing.” In his instructions to the jury, Judge Bill Everson said they had to be satisfied the drugs were “noxious” to Leach’s health, rather than that of her unborn child.
Kate Marsh of the abortion lobby group Children by Choice, said the case “sends a clear message that not even a jury is willing to convict on these charges.”
“This is not the end, the end will be when they take the entire thing out of the criminal code.”
Dr. Nicholas Fiske, dean of health sciences at the University of Queensland, speaking as a witness for the prosecution, told the court that millions of women use the abortion drug with no ill effects. However, a study released just this month has shown that while Australian demand has skyrocketed, the first “failures” are being reported, as well as “adverse” effects for women.
Data released by the Therapeutic Goods Administration showed that in New South Wales, chemical abortions went from none to 1154 between July and December last year. In Queensland they increased from four to 323, and from 42 to 412 in Victoria. The increase came as a chain of day clinics was licensed to use the drug.
In 14 of those cases the drugs “failed” and the child survived. In each of these cases, the child was then aborted surgically. A further 110 cases reported unspecified “adverse effects.” Complications named involved retention of placenta remains and other “products of conception.”