To the Editor: At budget estimates hearings of the Senate Community Affairs Committee in June 2010, answers were provided to questions on notice asked by Senator Guy Barnett to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) about the use of mifepristone for medical abortion in Australia since 2006.1 The answers are of interest as they include the number of practitioners who have become authorised prescribers of mifepristone in Australia since the “Harradine Amendment” was overturned in federal parliament in February 2006, as well as details of their practice.
- James Cook University School of Medicine, Cairns Campus, Cairns, QLD.
Correspondence: caroline.decosta@jcu.edu.au
- 1. Australian Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee. Examination of budget estimates 2010–2011. Answers to questions on notice. Consolidated volume 1. Health and Ageing portfolio. Whole of portfolio, outcomes 1 to 15. http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/estimates/bud_1011/vol1_doha.pdf (accessed Sep 2010).
- 2. Dickinson JE, Brownell P, McGinnis K, Nathan EA. Mifepristone and second trimester pregnancy termination for fetal abnormality in Western Australia: worth the effort. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol 2010; 50: 60-64.
- 3. Schaff EA. Mifepristone: ten years later. Contraception 2010; 81: 1-7.
- 4. Bartz D, Goldberg A. Medication abortion. Clin Obstet Gynecol 2009; 52: 140-150.
- 5. Gemzell-Danielsson K, Lalitkumar S. Second trimester medical abortion with mifepristone–misoprostol and misoprostol alone: a review of methods and management. Reprod Health Matters 2008; 16 (31 Suppl): 162-172.
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