The 28Sept2000 announcement by the Food and Drug Administration that the abortion drug RU486 can now be marketed in the United States is being called "a tragedy of monumental proportions".

Wisconsin Right to Life Executive Director, Barbara Lyons, said, "RU 486 is an abortion drug whose only proven use is to kill an unborn baby whose heart has already begun to beat. Potential exists for RU486 to cause severe disabilities in babies who survive the abortion, to injure and possibly kill women, and to potentially harm a woman's subsequent offspring."

The RU 486 chemical abortion procedure requires the administration of two potent and dangerous drugs.

The first drug, RU 486, is a powerful steroid which blocks the action of the female hormone progesterone. As a result, the tiny developing child literally starves to death as the nutrient lining of the womb sloughs off.

The secondary drug, either Cytotec or Misoprostol, causes muscular contractions to expel the dead baby. Prolonged excessive bleeding, severe cramps, and diarrhea are some of the common side effect of the RU 486 abortion procedure.

As many as 82 percent of patients reported painful contractions with bleeding continuing anywhere from ten days to six weeks.

Some women require blood transfusions.

During trials in the United States, one woman in Iowa nearly bled to death.

Often, the RU 486 abortion procedure does not result in a complete abortion and the women must still undergo a surgical abortion.

In Wisconsin trials, 14% of chemically induced abortions were incomplete.

The RU 486 abortion procedure requires 3 to 4 visits to a doctor.
Fifty percent of the time, the woman does not abort in the doctor's office.

She could abort in the car, at her place of work, at the grocery store... and she is left completely alone to deal with the remains of her child.

Even within the abortion industry and abortion-rights ranks, there is much dissension and disagreement about the safety and impact of chemical abortions.

For example, Renate Klein, Deputy Director Australian Women's Research Centre, at Deakin University, Geolong, Australia stated, "RU486 has been falsely promoted as quick, easy and hassle free. I have vigorously refuted this".... "Although I support a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion with good counseling, I am emphatic that this dangerous second-rate drug is not a positive addition to a women's decision-making whether or not to have children."

Chemical Pollution 

Dr. Hakim Elahi, the medical director of Planned Parenthood of New York City said the side effects of chemical abortion are so unpredictable that he would not use it as an abortion drug in any dose.

Janice Raymond, associate director of the Institute on Women and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology echoed Elahi's concerns when she said, "Claims that RU 486 abortion is private and demedicalized are belied by the number of medical visits and the whole drug cocktail a woman may be exposed to."

Wisconsin Right to Life's Lyon's summed up her organizations grave objections to the marketing of RU 486 in the United States. "With the RU 486 abortion procedure, a mother will more directly participate in ending the life of her unborn child, possibly witnessing her withered child being expelled from her womb," said Lyons. "

No longer will an abortionist necessarily be present to share the guilt, or even a nurse to conceal the baby's tiny body. More than ever before, women will be alone in dealing with the physical and psychological aftermath of an abortion. But overriding even these serious concerns is the fact that RU 486 has only one purpose and that is to destroy the life of an unborn child."

[28Sept2000 Wisconsin Right to Life, 877-855-5007]

RU 486, also called mifepristone (Mifeprex) is presently produced in China.