RU 486 can be administered to a woman as soon as she knows that she is pregnant and wants to have an abortion. By contrast, a woman must wait until the 6th-8th week before she is able to have a surgical abortion. Pregnancy termination with RU 486 is non-surgical, requires no anesthesia and puts women at no risk of perforation, damage to the cervix or infection from instruments. It is also considered less physically invasive and appears more similar to a miscarriage than to an induced abortion. RU 486 can make abortion a more private experience.
Women are usually alone when they abort.
Further research may lead to a protocol in which only a woman and her own doctor are involved in the administration of RU 486. RU 486 has the potential to make abortion more accessible. Administering it does not require the same level of specialized medical expertise or time as surgical abortion. RU 486 should eventually be cheaper than a surgical abortion. RU 486 has tremendous potential for use in developing countries where hundreds of thousands of women each year are injured or die from unsafe abortions.