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Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
The "abortion pill" moves a woman's choice into the home. Will anti-abortion forces follow?
Sep 29, 2000 | After more than a decade in limbo, the pro-choice community finally received word on Thursday that mifepristone -- now known as Mifeprex and formerly known as RU-486 or the "abortion pill" -- had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
"It's a great public health advantage that American women will no longer be deprived of this safe, private alternative to a surgical abortion," said Wendy Chavkin, M.D., MPH, professor of public health and OB/GYN at Columbia University Medical School. "An earlier abortion is a safer abortion, which makes it a boon for women's health. 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 can take the medication in the privacy and comfort of their own homes (all the while under doctor's supervision). This change -- the fact that women can be in their own beds or on the couch rather than in a clinic or even a doctor's office -- is a watershed that will surely bring about a dramatic change in the landscape of abortion rights in this country.
The Mifeprix regimen consists of three pills: Two are swallowed on Day 1 of treatment and one is swallowed on Day 3. 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.
Some say that the prolonged treatment with RU-486 -- up to three days -- makes it too inconvenient to displace surgical abortion. 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.
Indeed, 31 percent of gynecologists who do not currently perform surgical abortions said they will make RU-486 available to their patients, according to a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. More notably, while only 5 percent of family practice physicians routinely perform surgical abortions, 31 percent said that they would prescribe the drug to their patients if it were approved by the FDA.
