JOHANNESBURG

The SA Council of Churches will back the Treatment Action Campaign's call to doctors to issue Nevirapine to pregnant mothers despite the government announcement that it is to appeal the court ruling on the issue.

"If it becomes necessary to save lives we'll do it. It shouldn't be a political decision whether the drugs are toxic or not," the SACC's Reverend Gift Moerane told journalists in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

He also called for an end to the dispute between the government and civil society on the issue.

"Let it instead be an opportunity to form a national consensus on how to deal with HIV-Aids so we don't take polarising positions."

"We think this is the right thing to do," he said, adding that every pregnant woman who needed drugs to reduce the chances of transmitting the disease to her unborn child should have access to them.

Sapa.