Australian minister to keep abortion pill control

CANBERRA - The abortion drug RU486 is controversial enough to warrant ministerial intervention in its approval, Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott says.

The drug is available to women in many countries, including the US, Britain, European nations and New Zealand, to induce abortions and to treat certain types of life-threatening tumours.

It is not banned in Australia, but requires special approval from the health minister before it can be imported.

A Senate committee is considering a private members' bill from a group of female senators and MPs that would hand Mr Abbott's powers over RU486 to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

Mr Abbott told the Nine Network today he had not banned the drug, but there had been no successful applications for its use as an abortion pill.

He said the TGA was still involved in its approval but the health minister gave the final clearance.

"Politicians are accountable in a way that public servants are not," he said.

It was decided in 1996 that "this use of the drug is sufficiently controversial if you like, there are sufficient public interest issues involved, for the added accountability of a ministerial decision to be part of that process". This thinking had continued since then, Mr Abbott added.

- AAP