Senators vote in favour of RU486
I know I said no more serious posting, but, just quickly, the Australian Senate voted to strip the Health Minister of his power to control the abortion drug that I discussed yesterday. It was a conscience vote, meaning that the senators were allowed to vote based on personal opinions, not party policy (in Australia, most Senators are expected to follow the party’s decision; failure to do so (”crossing the floor”) generally doesn’t put your leader in a good mood. (It’s actually an interesting decision as to whether this is a good or bad thing - should politicians, representing all of their electorate, be allowed their own personal opinion? But I promised no more heavy posts for a while….)
The bill still has to be passed through the House of Representatives, which may be tougher, particularly since the Prime Minister (John Howard, again anti-abortion) has indicated he is against it. Still, it was a solid majority (45-28), and hopefully sends a strong message.