Australia Senate approves bill to lift abortion drug ban News
Australia Senate approves bill to lift abortion drug ban

[JURIST] The Australian Senate [official website] on Thursday voted to remove the need for the health minister's approval for importing and prescribing the abortion pill RU-486 (also known as Mifepristone) [Wikipedia backgrounder]. The approval requirement effectively prohibits use of the drug since conservative anti-abortionist Tony Abbott [official website] holds the office of health minister and the power to veto applications for the drug.

The Senate voted 45-28 in favor of lifting the approval requirement after two days of vigorous debate in which two members openly discussed personal experiences with abortion. The Australian House of Representatives [official website] will consider the nonpartisan bill [PDF text] next week in what is expected to be a closer vote. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

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