Union protest on RU486 to minister

THE Catholic Union has written to Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley to protest at the government's decision to licence the abortion pill RU486.
Philip Daniel, chair of the Catholic Union's issues committee, says in his letter to Mrs Bottomley that his organisation is "increasingly concerned here that, as in third world countries, abortion may be increasingly regarded as a desirable form of contraception, even though it should be incontrovertible that family planning, which can embrace a variety of religious and ethical creeds, is philosophically and ethically preferable."
Mr Daniel says the licensing of a drug he describes as "a DIY home-based abortifacient" was "totally wrong-headed", and begs the minister to withold authorisation of the drug for further tests.
• ANT1-ABORTION campaigners in Northern Ireland have become concerned by media reports that RU486 may be made available there, despite the six counties' exemption from the 1967 Abortion Act.
Betty Gibson, chair of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in Northern Ireland, said it had been claimed that the drug might be made available in cases where the life of the mother was in danger. "This is utter nonsense. The manufacturers themselves warn that RU486 should not be used in cases of ectopic pregnancy, virtually the only lifethreatening abnormality in early pregnancy, and it can't even be used where women smoke because of the risk of heart traumas associated with this form of abortion," she said.