And obviously, it will improve women's experiences dramatically if they no longer have to run a gantlet of harassment to end their pregnancy, which is what happens in many parts of the country. Mifeprix can be taken within 49 days of the beginning of a woman's last menstrual period to terminate an early pregnancy. Long available in France, the United Kingdom and Sweden among other countries, Mifeprix blocks the hormone progesterone that is needed for a pregnancy to be carried to term, then causes uterine contractions, terminating a pregnancy in its early days. Women will be required to visit their doctor's offices on Day 1 and Day 3, and again on Day 14, to ensure that the procedure is complete. Studies have shown that 4.5 to 8 percent of women will need surgery or a blood transfusion to complete the procedure.
Side effects can include nausea, heavy bleeding and cramping.
But research indicated that privacy is extremely important to those who choose to terminate their pregnancies. In addition to avoiding the harassment of anti-abortion protesters waving pictures of fetuses, women who use the abortion pill are likely to have more access to a physician who can prescribe Mifeprex than they would to a doctor who would perform a surgical abortion. The approval comes after a national upsurge in recent years of anti-abortion sentiment made it seem nearly impossible for RU 486 to be approved. It took more than 10 years, and extensive studies, for the FDA to approve the drug without draconian conditions for its use. This drug will cause even greater trauma to women who have abortions than surgical abortions do.