From: New Liberation News Service <nlns@igc.apc.org>
Subject: NLNS: Politics of RU-486
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 15:32:26 GMT

The Politics of RU-486
Jessie Stickgold-Sarah, The Thistle

(NLNS)--RU-486 is known to most Americans as "the abortion pill;" it is 
generally thought to provide the safest, least traumatic form of abortion 
anywhere. But it has also shown potential in the treatment of a number of 
medical conditions, and political controversy is overshadowing these 
myriad uses. The FDA has imposed an Import Alert on RU-486--without 
feedback from researchers--which means that the drug cannot be imported 
for personal use in the United States, nor can individuals bring it into the 
country for research purposes.	
	Although such research could be carried out under certain 
circumstances, Roussel-Uclaf, the only manufacturer of RU-486, has 
shown no interest in applying for the requisite permits. This is largely due 
to a small but vocal minority of anti-abortion activists, who have conducted 
a huge letter-writing campaign directed towards both Roussel and the US 
government. Some letters claim that RU-486 "has no purpose but to kill 
innocent unborn children" and all demand that the drug be absolutely 
banned from use. 	
	The White House has been quick to comply, prohibiting its use as 
an abortifacient and giving no encouragement to research proposals. 
Roussel is seriously worried about the damage which could result from the 
boycott these activists have threatened, and has steadfastly refused to argue 
on the drug's behalf in the US. It is not clear whether Roussel or the FDA is 
more to blame for the deterrence of research on RU-486, but certainly both 
are at fault.	
	RU-486 blocks progesterone, estrogen and glucocorticoids. As an 
antiprogestin it can be used to treat breast cancer, which strikes  one woman 
in nine and kills one woman every twelve minutes, and meningioma, an 
inoperable brain tumor causing impaired mental function, affecting between 
6000 and 9000 people a year in the US; it has also shown potential as a 
contraceptive. As an antiestrogen it has demonstrated potential for 
supression of estrogen-dependent cancer cells. Cortisol, a glucocorticoid, is 
a hormone that affects insulin, glucose, proteins, and stress reactions, so 
that RU-486 might be a treatment for hypertension and diabetes, to name 
only a few of a number of medical conditions. 	
	Ronald Chesemore, Associate Commissioner for Regulatory 
Affairs, FDA, stated as his rationale for imposing Import Alert restrictions 
on RU-486 the fact that he "became concerned that the publicity regarding 
the availability of these drugs overseas might create a demand in this 
country, which could in turn foster importation of these unapproved drugs 
leading to unsupervised use and/or clandestine distribution." 	
	Although studies on over 50,000 women have shown the drug to be 
safe and effective when used under a doctor's supervision, and though 
thousands of drugs are currently in use in the United States with precisely 
those provisions, the FDA states that it believes that RU-486 "could pose a 
risk to the safety of the user" and that such a risk is unacceptable. 	
	Dozens of medical researchers who have established the drug's 
many uses have attested as to its worth; several doctors cited cases of 
patients who had left the country to get treatment, because RU-486, the only 
antiprogesterone proven safe for humans, is unavailable in the US. In June 
1990 the American Medical Association's House of Delegates, representing 
290,000 doctors across the country, voted nearly unanimously to admit 
RU-486 to the country. Despite the massive body of evidence available, all 
of it indicating the safety and effectiveness of RU-486, the FDA refuses to 
consider taking the drug off the Import Alert list. 	
	It is unfortunate that controversy over the political issues of abortion 
has obscured the non-abortifacient properties of RU-486; it is disturbing 
that the organizations that classify themselves under the umbrella term of 
"pro-life" seem so little concerned with the welfare of others past the 
moment of birth. That a group supporting the ban on RU-486 on the 
grounds that it "maims mothers and will enable Planned Parenthood to 
perpetuate the idea that human life is cheap" is willing to deny the proven 
and potential benefits of this drug to hundreds of thousands of terminally ill 
people is distressingly hypocritical.	
	To recognize the medical importance of RU-486 in non-abortion-
related areas is vital, but the possibilities the drug offers for making abortion 
a private, safe procedure are equally important. Far more mothers have been 
maimed -- or killed -- by back-alley abortions performed by untrained 
personnel than by any drug as rigorously tested as RU-486 has been. It is 
inexcusable to value the existence of an unborn fetus over the existence of a 
woman. It is horrific that RU-486, a drug that is desperately needed for 
many, many reasons, is kept out of the country by a group of people 
claiming compassion for life; by a company that values its profits over the 
potential good it could do; and a governmental agency succumbing to the 
factually incorrect arguments of one group, at the expense of numerous 
others. The question of whether this drug is allowed into the country should 
be a question of medical value and safety, not a question of politics.

The Thistle can be reached at W20-413, 84 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge 
MA 02139; (617) 253-0399; thistle@athena.mit.edu

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