Aussie Miscarriage Fiasco Leads to Calls for Reform

PM on defensive after miscarriage horror in Sydney
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2007 1:50 PM CDT
Aussie Miscarriage Fiasco Leads to Calls for Reform
Jana Horska and her husband Mark Dreyer.   (ABC News)

Reports of Australian women left to miscarry in the bathroom of a major Sydney hospital have elicited an outcry for public health reform, even as beleaguered prime minister John Howard defended the system as flawed but good. But an ER physician at the hospital told ABC News that there were simply no beds: "This could happen in any emergency department in this country."

Reports of a woman who miscarried Tuesday after a two-hour wait has led other women to come forward with horror stories about understaffed emergency services. Reuters reports that Howard, whose party trails badly in upcoming elections, is trying to limit the fallout from the incidents: Both he and the opposition leader have vowed to nationalize all hospitals. (More John Howard stories.)

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