The Australian Christian Right has fallen afoul of the country's feminist movement, and was recentlydefeated over a doomed importation ban related to RU486, the 'abortion pill.' RU486 (mifepristone) works on women's uteruses, causing dislodgement of attached embryos for the first fifty days of any pregnancy, and is preferredby some women who need abortions because they feel more in control of the process. Within set protocols, it is safe, so it received clearance for use in New Zealand in 2001. After Right to Life New Zealand lost a court case, proper use began here in 2003. Not so in Australia, where the incoming Howard administration pandered to Senator Brian Harradine, a right-wing Catholic upper house member who held the balance of power in the Australian federal upper house. Under the guise of women's health and safety, further RU486 clinical trials, importation and use was banned in 1996. However, recently, pro-choice NGOs and a multipartisan alliance of pro-choice Senators and Members of the House of Representatives ganged up on the anti-abortion federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott. The ban repeal bill passed in the Senate and House of Representatives, so it is now history. Why did this delightful unexpected setback for the Australian Christian Right occur? Happily, the Australian anti-abortion movement is internally fragmented and liable to extremist tactics like clinic invasions and making public nuisances of themselves. Accordingly, even Fred Nile has admitted that it's difficult to attack women's reproductive freedom in Australia. Predictably, John Howard has defended his Health Minister, but the issue may have damaged both him and his crony. What does this mean for us? Given that a multipartisan alliance worked in the case of RU486,somefederal Liberal backbenchersare planning a similar initiativefor federal Australian civil union legislation. At last, despire the best efforts of John Howard and his cronies, Australia finally seems to be turning the corner, away from hardcore social conservatism. Recommended: Rebecca Albury: The Politics of Reproduction: Allen and Unwin: North Sydney: 1999. Marion Maddox: God Under Howard: Allen and Unwin: North Sydney: 2005. Fred Nile: An Autobiography: Sydney: Stroud Publishing: 2001. Craig Young - 6th March 2006