An influential group of female Labor members is calling on the Albanese Government to consider further broadening access to the abortion pill and allowing pharmacists to prescribe it without a script from a doctor or nurse. Source: The Australian.
Emily’s List, which successfully lobbied for Labor to adopt gender quotas, is pushing to make abortion access easier and ensure that women, particularly in regional areas, are provided timely terminations.
The Government this week empowered nurses to prescribe the pill but did not give such power to pharmacists, instead only lifting regulations that restrict the stocking and dispensing of the medication.
Emily’s List chief executive Pamela Anderson said the announcement was “a step in the right direction”, and giving pharmacists the ability to not only dispense but also prescribe the medication should be considered.
The termination pill is a two-part medication added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2013 that can be taken within nine weeks of a pregnancy.
The Australian in June revealed motions Emily’s List was planning to present at Labor’s national conference in August, which included allowing more health practitioners to prescribe the pill.
Other motions from Emily’s List include urging the Government to pay for “travel costs for anyone living regionally and remotely when they are unable to access the service locally”.
Leading Christian groups have been calling on Labor MPs to back more protections for religious organisations in the party’s policy platform at August’s ALP national conference and have raised alarm at the debate over abortion becoming “unbalanced” to protect women pressured into terminations but not those who wanted to continue with the pregnancy.
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Women’s group Emily’s List calls for Labor to consider allowing pharmacists to prescribe abortion pill (By Sarah Ison, The Australian)
