Failures recorded as demand soars for abortion pill

THE first failures of the abortion pill have been reported in Australia amid a surge in the take-up of RU486.

THE first failures of the abortion pill have been reported in Australia amid a surge in the take-up of RU486.

Therapeutic Goods Administration data shows use of the controversial drug increased greatly in the second half of last year after a national chain of day clinics was licensed to use it. In NSW, terminations with RU486 went from none to 1154 between July and December. In Queensland it increased from four to 323 and from 42 to 412 in Victoria.

Also known as mifepristone, RU486 is generally used with another drug, misoprostol, to induce abortions that can take place at home. But in 14 Australian cases the drugs failed and the termination had to be completed surgically. A further 110 cases of "adverse effects" were reported by the 81 doctors authorised to prescribe RU486 as at the end of last year, including those at the Marie Stopes organisation, which operates 13 clinics in the eastern states, ACT and Western Australia.

Complications involved retention of placenta remains and other "products of conception", information released to Tasmanian Liberal senator Guy Barnett through parliamentary estimates shows.

More than 3000 RU486 abortions have been performed in Australia since a ban on its importation was lifted four years ago, after conscience votes by MPs and senators. About 100,000 elective abortions are thought to happen annually in Australia; in Britain and the US, about a third of abortions are performed with drugs.

Obstetrician Caroline de Costa, who spearheaded the campaign to bring RU486 into the country and set up the first service using it in Cairns, played down the complication rate: "The incidence is less than 3 per cent and, given that a high proportion of the overall 3000 cases are late ones, that is well within overseas experience."

She said the failure rate of RU486 identified in international studies was less than 1 per cent, and the 14 cases here were consistent with that.

Senator Barnett said any adverse effects from RU486 had to be of concern. "It should raise serious questions about the ethicacy and appropriateness of this method of termination," he said yesterday.