They need at least to ensure the women return to the clinic to make sure the pregnancy was ended. The cost is equivalent to that of a surgical abortion. The drug has been approved since the early 1990s in Europe, where 500,000 women have used it, but its approval stalled in the United States amidst the contentious politics of abortion. The FDA deemed the drug safe and effective in 1996, but since then only has approved the drug for use under experimental conditions by 7,000 women, to date, at designated sites. Now, the FDA's own approaching deadline requires a final say on marketing and labeling of the drug.
Doctors have hospital privileges at a nearby facility for emergencies.
Creation of a national approval list of prescribing doctors. Some doctors feel some of these proposed rules are reasonable. Dr. Joe Lipinsky, a family physician at the University of Pittsburgh, says he won't prescribe the medication for personal reasons, and he believes doctors who are comfortable prescribing it should have special training. But Dr. Eric Schaff of the University of Rochester, the coordinating investigator of RU-486 clinical trial in the United States, disagrees. A survey conducted in June by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that any certification requirements would dramatically reduce the number of doctors able to perform the procedure.