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Once again, controversy erupted. When Baulieu first began experimenting with RU 486 in combination with an oral prostaglandin, Roussel balked. As a result, Baulieu had to persuade French public health officials to defray insurance costs. After preliminary trials, the government compelled Roussel to participate, arguing that the proposed testing of an oral prostaglandin was important for women. Although Searle raised no objections, its executives remain uncomfortable about being linked to the abortion business. "Searle has never willingly made ((Cytotec)) available for use in abortion," a company official wrote in a letter to the Wall Street Journal in February...
...French began testing the new method of using RU 486 that does not require going to a clinic for a follow-up shot. An oral prostaglandin, commercially marketed as Cytotec by the American manufacturer G.D. Searle, enabled women to abort simply by swallowing a combination of pills. The efficiency rate rose from 95.5% to 96.9%, and the speed of the procedure improved. In 61% of the cases, the uterine contents were expelled within four hours after taking Cytotec, in contrast to 47% in the case of prostaglandin injections. Although there were instances of nausea and diarrhea, which are also common...
...uses of RU 486 could extend well beyond dealing with some of the 37 million abortions carried out around the globe each year. European studies have shown that it is an effective morning-after pill, inducing less nausea or vomiting than other drugs used for the same purpose. There are also indications that RU 486 can combat endometriosis, a leading cause of female infertility, and fibroid tumors, a condition that often necessitates hysterectomy. Thus the same drug that can help some women end unwanted pregnancies may enable others to bear children. Assorted studies have found that RU 486 may also...
Despite the many potential uses for RU 486 and its effectiveness as an abortion method, efforts to legalize it in the U.S. have met with repeated failure. Last year a pro-choice group called Abortion Rights Mobilization decided to force a court challenge of the import ban imposed on RU 486 by the Bush Administration in 1989. The organization helped Leona Benten, a pregnant 29-year-old California social worker, fly to England, obtain a dose of RU 486, then try to bring it into the U.S. through New York City's Kennedy Airport. Customs officials seized the pills...
...abortion. She must also sign a Roussel form that confirms her understanding that a malformed fetus might result if she does not see the abortion through to completion. (As yet no defects have been found in the small number of babies born to women known to have taken RU 486.) At that point, the woman is given three aspirin-like RU 486 tablets, each containing 200 mg of the drug. After swallowing the pills, she again goes home...