Is America Ready for RU-486?
Ten years ago a pill was developed in France, it was informally called RU-486, it's intent was to give women wanting an abortion an easy alternative to surgery, but is America ready for this revolutionary pill? Since the late 1980's when America first got wind of the fact that Europe had developed and was testing a pill that would make surgical abortions obsolete, pro-choice and pro-life activists have had a field day. But the issue in this case isn't what is morally right, it is that RU-486 isn't safe enough for American women. From the numerous tests done in America there have been too many negative effects on the women who opt for the medical abortion (an abortion performed using the pill) as apposed to the surgical one. The combination of the pills mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol (prostaglandin) needs to be recalled until more tests can be done and improvements made, because in the beginning stages that the drug is in now RU-486 does more harm than good. RU-486 was developed in France in 1982, but it wasn't until 1988 that is was approved as a successful alternative to surgical abortions. The only set back is the drug can only be used in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. After that time t
The only side effect of taking RU-486 on such a regular basis is that a woman's body can easily become dependant on it. Much like the oral contraceptives we have now, a woman's body becomes reliant on having the drug in their systems and is unable to have children until the drug completely expels itself. This can take anywhere from 3 months to a year, or more. "Researchers from Finland have developed a system that completely suppressed ovulation with larger doses of RU-486. This research suggests that women may eventually take RU-486 as an estrogen-free contraceptive. This would provide an alternative for women over 35, for whom the current hormone-based contraceptives increase the risk of cancer." (Hamilton, 1997). The new abortion "pill" is actually a two-pill regimen; first RU-486, which is an antiprogestin. This causes the uterus to shed it's lining which extricates the embryo. Then several days later you take second pill known as misoprostol, which induces uterine contractions that in turn expel the fertilized egg. A test was done to indicate the success rate of RU-486. "Out of 2,040 women in France 76 of the women had to be surgically aborted or needed vacuum aspiration shortly after taking the regular dose of 600mg of mifepristone" (Klitsch, 1990). Which calculates to 3.72% of women in France needed vacuum aspiration after taking the pill. The abortion pill has been in America for more than a decade, but it was not accessible until the year 2000. Amazingly enough it has managed to remain fairly quiet, and not much controversy has been raised about it. That is, not until recently. RU-486 was publicly released in America in September 2000, and as expected it was met with cries of joy as well as threats of mass chaos. Despite it's surprising success in France there is still the influence of the pro-life factor in America, which when compared to France is much more influential. Since America is not yet as liberal as France is with matters of women's choices the FDA was most likely expecting reactions like this. The fact of the matter is RU-486 is not safe for American women, it's not a question of morals. It's simply not safe for Americans, where French women had a 96% chance of having a successful abortion, "American women had an 81% chance of success." (Hamilton, 1997). Until that success rate can be raised to 95% RU-486 should not be released to American women. Because women who were unable to abort with Mifepristone were then forced to have a surgical abortion, and required to be hospitalized for at least one night because of the physical stress that their bodies had gone through. "A family doctor in a rural, conservative town in the Northeast had a pregnant 18-year-old patient who wanted an abortion. He did not do surgical abortions, but he did offer her a medical alternative, using not Mifepristone but the cancer drug Methotrexate, which is also being tested in trials as an abortion inducer. The doctor, knowing that his nurses opposed abortion, administered the drug himself. That was in January 1998, and by Easter the nursing staff had heard what happened and a nurse had resigned. The local church got involved; at the Easter service the pastor asked worshippers to 'pray for the doctor and the other souls' at the medical center. Soon petitions poured in. The state medical board investigated and found nothing wrong but issued a reprimand anyway. Insurers informed the clinic that it was not insured for abortions, although the only classification was for surgical abortions. Some patients dropped the clinic and some donors stopped providing funds." (Gibbs, 2000). Even though RU-486 did so well in France, it was never meant to be used as an alternative to abortion because of the medical repercussions
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Approximate Word count = 2547
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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