From: odin@netlink.cts.com (Hank Roth)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: RU486: Facts from Planned Parenthood
Date: 21 Nov 92 06:52:57 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: NetLink Online Communications, San Diego CA
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

<<< via P_news >>> 
                    QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ABOUT RU 486
             FACTS from Planned Parenthood of New York City
           380 Second Avenue, New York, Ny 10010 212-777-2002
 
 
 WHAT IS RU 486?
 
A synthetic drug developed by the French pharmaceutical company 
Groupe Roussel-Uclaf.  It is called a "progesterone antagonist" 
because it blocks the activity of progesterone, one of the 
principal sex hormones in women. By doing so, it can, among other 
things, prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the walls of 
the uterus.  When a woman takes RU 486 early in pregnancy, the 
uterine lining breaks down, bringing on menstruation. The 
pregnancy is aborted without surgery. 
 
 HAS IT BEEN TESTED?
 
Since 1982, thousands of women in twenty countries -- 34,000 in 
France alone -- have participated in clinical trials using RU 486 
to end unwanted pregnancy. In the US, research on RU 486 as an 
abortifacient has been supported solely though private funds 
raised by the Population Council. But through the Center for 
Population Research at the National Institute of Child Health and 
Human Development, the US government has funded research on other 
uses of RU 486 -- as a contraceptive, as a treatment for such 
medical conditions as breast cancer and glaucoma, and as a tool 
to study causes of infertility.  All these uses also look 
promising. 
 
 HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT IN TERMINATING PREGNANCY?
 
Used by itself, RU 486 is about 85% effective in the first two or 
three weeks after a missed menstrual period. Its effectiveness 
drops sharply after the seventh week of pregnancy, and the drug 
is virtually ineffective after the eighth week. When RU 486 is 
given along with a small dose of prostaglandin, the combination 
has been about 95% effective. Prostaglandin causes uterine 
contractions that can bring on abortion, but high doses are 
needed for it to work alone, and this results in unacceptable 
side effects. When prostaglandin is combined with RU 486, RU 486 
sensitizes the uterus so that only a small dose of prostaglandin 
is needed to produce contractions.  
 
 HOW SAFE IS IT?
 
The only side effects reported by some women participating in 
the clinical trials of RU 486 as an abortifacient were similar to 
those of a spontaneous miscarriage -- some bleeding, a little 
nausea, fatigue, uterine contractions. In an NIH study in which 
lower doses of RU 486 were given, the women reported no side 
effects at all. RU 486 may, in fact, be safer than surgical 
abortion, since it is a noninvasive procedure and does not 
require anesthesia. The implications are most dramatic for 
developing nations, where sanitary conditions for performing 
abortion are often not optimal. An estimated 150,000 deaths occur 
worldwide each year from botched abortions, according to The New 
York Times. 
 
 WHAT'S HOLDING UP RESEARCH ON RU 486 IN THE UNISTED STATES?
 
In the US today, most pharmaceutical firms have given up on 
research and development of new contraceptives. Daunted by the 
time and money required to bring a drug to market (an average of 
seven to ten years and an estimated $70 million per drug) and 
concerned about product liability litigation and liability 
insurance costs, they have held back. The anti-abortion movement 
has contributed to this climate by attempting to block sales of 
RU 486, calling for pickets, boycotts, and demonstrations against 
any company willing to bring it to market. 
 
On October 26, 1988 Roussel-Uclaf, the sole manufacturer of the 
drug and holder of the patent, took the unprecedented action of 
suspending distribution of RU 486, citing protests by anti-
abortion groups in the US, France, and West Germany. Two days 
later, the French Minister of Health, Claude Evin, ordered the 
company to resume distribution of RU 486 in the interests of 
public health. Said Evin: "From the moment government approval 
for the drug was granted, RU486 became the moral property of 
women, not just the property of the drug company."  The news of 
Evin's action was greeted by a burst of applause from hundreds of 
doctors from all over the world who were gathered at that moment 
for the World Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Rio de 
Janeiro. 
 
In the US, the one remaining source for major funding of research 
and development of a drug like RU 486 is the federal government. 
Unfortunately, the federal government now spends less on 
contraceptive research in a single year than the Defense 
Department spends in 15 minutes. Although right-to-lifers claim 
otherwise, there are at present no restrictions on funding for 
research on drugs that prevent implantation of a fertilized egg 
or that induce abortion. Nevertheless Hyde and Hyde-like 
restrictions have had a chilling effect on such research at NIH. 
 
 WHAT IF A BLACK MARKET DEVELOPS?
 
RU 486 has the capacity to give women tremendous freedom and ease 
in controlling their reproductive lives. Now that the drug is 
available in other countries, there is concern that demand for 
the drug could create a black market. This would be tragic, since 
medically unsupervised use could be harmful. 
 
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