They must be able to date early pregnancy and uncover ectopic pregnancies that require special care. For the rare cases when mifepristone fails, they must either perform a surgical abortion or have a backup surgeon on call. Some gynecologists and family practitioners in regions where abortion access is limited are showing interest. Forty attended mifepristone training at the Women's Health Center of Duluth, Minn., where women drive hundreds of miles from parts of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin to get abortions. Nobody knows, however, how many of the physicians then ordered the drug.
Mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone, vital for an embryo to develop.
A second drug, misoprostol, causes contractions to expel the embryo. The FDA instructs women to swallow three mifepristone tablets, return to the doctor two days later to swallow two misoprostol tablets, and return again within two weeks for the doctor to check that the abortion worked. But many abortion clinics plan to have women swallow one mifepristone tablet and carry misoprostol home where, two days later, they'll insert it vaginally. Then they'll make one return doctor visit to ensure the abortion worked. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found the second, easier method worked as well.