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LAte

1. What Is RU 486?

RU 486 (or Mifepristone) is a steroid hormone similar in structure to the natural hormone progesterone. Invented in 1980 by Dr. Etienne-Emile Baulieu for the French pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf, RU 486 is the first of a new generation of birth control drugs called "antiprogestins", considered to be a breakthrough in birth control technology. (RU 486's name comes from Roussel-Uclaf's initials plus a serial number.)

2. How Does RU 486 Work?

In a woman's body, the natural hormone known as progesterone is essential for establishing and maintaining a pregnancy. The name for the hormone, in fact, comes from the Latin words "pro" (for) and "gestare" (to carry). RU 486 is a progesterone antagonist (an "antiprogestin").

3. Will RU 486 Completely Replace Surgical Abortion?

No. The RU 486 regime works only during the first 9 weeks of pregnancy, or up to 63 days from the start of the woman's last menstrual period. After this time, the woman's own progesterone level is apparently too great to be affected by the drug.

4. What Is The Background Of RU 486?

Early trials found that RU 486, when taken alone, acted very slowly and had a significant failure rate. In order to improve its effectiveness, Roussel's investigators began to combine RU 486 with a follow-up dose of prostaglandin. (Prostaglandins have been widely used since 1970 to induce uterine contractions.) The improvement was dramatic; prostaglandins were found to complement the actions of RU 486.

Over the last fifteen years, dozens of clinical studies on RU 486 have been conducted with thousands of women in over 20 countries, including France, Britain, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the U.S., Scandinavia, and the former Soviet Union. To date, RU 486 has been used by over 200,000 women in Europe alone.

5. Where Is RU 486 Being Used Today?

RU 486 in combination with a prostaglandin has been widely used in France since 1989 for pregnancies up to 7 weeks, and now accounts for about 30% of all French abortions. In 1991, RU 486 was approved for use in Britain for pregnancies up to 9 weeks duration. Sweden was the next country to be licensed to market the drug and testing has now been completed in the United States. The Chinese are now using RU 486 (in possible breach of the patent), and their numbers are not included in the research totals.

6. What Are The Side Effects Of RU 486?

Common side effects include bleeding, menstrual-type pain and cramping, which are comparable to those of surgical abortion. Women needing painkillers are given analgesics. Some women also experience some nausea, vomiting or diarrhea from the prostaglandin.

About one percent of women who take the drug combination experience heavy bleeding which requires further treatment. In clinical studies on RU 486, incomplete abortion occurred in 2-3% of cases and pregnancy persisted in 1%. These women then required surgical abortions

7. What Are The Disadvantages Of RU 486?

RU 486 is only effective during the earliest weeks of pregnancy, a time when many women do not yet know they are pregnant.
RU 486 takes longer than a surgical abortion. A vacuum aspiration abortion is done in 15 minutes, whereas RU 486 takes two days or more and, at present, requires two trips to the clinic for the abortion itself.
As a relatively new procedure, the long-term safety of RU 486 cannot yet be confirmed.

8. What Are The Advantages Of RU 486?

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 vacuum aspiration 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.
Many women prefer RU 486 because it allows them greater psychological control over the termination of pregnancy. 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. Furthermore, 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.

9. What Other Uses Does RU 486 Have?

The medical community has identified RU 486 as a promising treatment for several major medical problems, including:

certain breast cancers
ovarian cancer
meningioma(brain tumour)
endometriosis
Cushing's syndrome
adrenal cancer
glaucoma
uterine fibroid tumours
induction of labour
cervical ripening
contraception

Now please don't mis-label me as some kinda Liberal weenie, on most issues I fall way to the Right. But I don't think Government or Religious groups should deny a Women the right to Choose for herself or get in the way of human scientific progress

IG