Margaret Reynolds and RU846

THE controversy over RU846 is rather deja vu for Margaret Reynolds.

The former Senator was in the front line of the push to make the drug available in Australia as long ago as 1989. And in 1999, when she retired from the Senate, she gave her file on the issue to the National Library.

RU846 was approved for release in Catholic France in 1988. Reynolds, a Tasmanian who was a Labor Senator for Queensland from 1983-99, was Minister Assisting the Prime Minister (Hawke) on regional issues, local government and women at the time and in 1989, was briefed by the Office of the Status of Women on the abortion pill, and advocated application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for its use in Australia.

The private member’s bill to remove control over RU486 from the Health Minister’s control and give it to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which is being debated in Canberra this week, is about regulation, it’s not a debate on abortion, although you could be forgiven for thinking so. It’s thanks to another Tasmanian, former Independent Senator and devout Catholic Brian Harradine, that it came under the Health Minister’s control in the first place.

But back to Reynolds, who divides her time between homes in Launceston and Hobart which she shares with her husband, historian Henry Reynolds. To cut a long story short, in the early 90s, she was a member of the cross party Parliamentary Population Group, which sponsored a meeting in Canberra with the medico who piloted the drug’s use in France and an enquiry was made to the Therapeutic Goods Administration about bringing forward an application for its use.

Next step, Reynolds was in Paris, again in the early 90s and visited the original manufacturer, Roussel-Uclas, again with the intention of bringing forward release in Australia. She had a meeting with the person responsible for international distribution who surprised her by saying there was no plan to seek distribution in Australia

“I have this memorable image in my mind,” Reynolds says. “She went to a filing cabinet and pulled out not one, two or three, but four drawers filled with letters from Australia opposed to its use. There had been some publicity about the drug, not a great deal, but obviously, campaign letters had gone through the churches and the anti abortion lobby had made clear ‘don’t try Australia.'”

By 1996, Labor had been defeated and in a deal with Senator Harradine, it was proposed that the drug come under the discretion of the Health Minister, the Federal Government acceded to a conscience vote on the drug, and the Labor Opposition rolled over without a fight. And so it was that RU486 became the only drug to be controlled by the Health Minister, not the Therapeutic Goods Administration.