It won't work. However, the company has taken the extra precaution of not disclosing the location of the plant where the drug is being manufactured in hopes of preventing any conflicts there. Leaders of several anti-abortion groups say they remained opposed to mifepristone and would focus their efforts on the drug's side effects because the clinical trials had documented a variety of complications, including severe bleeding in 1 percent of the women who had used it. We know that somewhere along the way, someone may very well be hurt by it and someone may very well die by it. A spokeswoman for the Population Council maintained that any complications from using mifepristone were being exaggerated by abortion opponents.
Many physicians are capable of treating miscarriages.
The physician has to know to look for complications and how to handle them. FDA Commissioner Jane E. Henney said the approval was granted only after mifepristone was found to be safe and effective in clinical trials involving about 2,000 women in the United States. The drug has been on the market for a decade in Europe, and about 500,000 women have used it there. In approving its use, the FDA took the extra step of requiring that doctors provide their patients with detailed information about how the drug works, including a warning that it causes cramping and bleeding. The agency noted that 7 percent of the women involved in the U.S. trials later required a surgical abortion for problems including the incomplete expulsion of the embryo and uncontrolled bleeding.