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...will not allow anti-choice zealots to deny RU 486 to American women," vows Pamela Maraldo, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The pro-life forces are no less determined. "When they invent new ways to kill children, we will invent new ways to save them," warns the Rev. Keith Tucci of Operation Rescue National. A coalition of antiabortion forces has scheduled a demonstration in front of the French embassy in Washington on June 18, just three days before Roussel Uclaf holds its annual meeting in Paris...
...ABORTION DRUG HAS BEEN A source of controversy ever since its invention was announced in 1982 by Baulieu, a French physician who worked as a researcher at Roussel Uclaf. The concept was rather simple: RU 486, an antiprogestin, could break a fertilized egg's bond to the uterine wall and thus induce a miscarriage. An injection two days later of prostaglandin, a hormone-like substance, would force uterine contractions and speed the ejection of the embryo. It took six more years and tests on more than 17,000 women before the French government announced that RU 486 would be made...
...world certainly did. Thousands of physicians had convened that month at a medical congress in Rio de Janeiro, and most of them signed a petition demanding that the French government reverse Roussel's decision. Within 48 hours, Health Minister Claude Evin declared that once government approval had been granted, "RU 486 became the moral property of women," and he ordered Roussel to resume distribution. In 1989 RU 486 was made available to all licensed abortion clinics and hospitals in France. The results proved encouraging, save for a freak incident in 1991 when a woman who was an avid smoker suffered...
...Using RU 486 was less painful, carried less risk of infection and gave women greater control over the process than a surgical procedure. Over the next 3 1/ 2 years, 100,000 Frenchwomen used it successfully. Of those who made the decision early enough, about 85% chose RU 486 over surgery. (The pill is currently used in France only within seven weeks of the first day of a woman's last menstrual period; there is now talk of extending usage to a 10-week interval.) Almost all judged the method satisfactory...
Such promising results persuaded both Sweden and Britain to license RU 486; India is testing the drug. China is manufacturing clones that as yet are not widely available. Other countries, most notably Canada, are waiting for the U.S. to take the lead. "The U.S. is the leader in advanced research, the main source of development funds and the heart of worldwide networks that can allow RU 486 to help women everywhere," explains Baulieu...