RU486: Not Selling.(Mifepristone, abortifacient)

Publication: National Right to Life News

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2001 National Right to Life Committee, Inc.

Despite enormous media hype and unending claims by the abortion industry that there is great demand for the drug, all available evidence indicates that the abortifacient RU486 has not been the breakthrough product its supporters dreamed of.

Flunking Out on College Campuses

One of the places where the pill's promoters might have been expected to successfully make their strongest pitch is on America's college campuses. Residing there is a population of single, possibly sexually active, young women, quite often with the sort of mid-level, non-surgical, medical facility supporters considered ideal for the drug.

Yet at least 30 of the nation's major colleges and universities, including Princeton University, Boston University, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Oklahoma, Florida State University, and UCLA, have indicated they will not offer the drug to their students. Yale University is the only major university that has publicly indicated plans to make RU486 available on its campus.

Different universities gave different reasons for refusing to offer the pill. However, the explanation given by Barbara Blizzard, coordinator of the Women's Clinic at the University of Texas-Austin (UTA), as to why her university's health services department wasn't offering the pill was typical. Her remarks echo similar responses given by university medical personnel at Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan, San Diego State University, and Princeton.

First, Blizzard indicated, university health services at UTA didn't have an ultrasound machine to confirm the date of the pregnancy. The two-drug chemical method's "effectiveness" drops off substantially after the 49th day of pregnancy.

Second, said Blizzard, "It requires surgical intervention if it

Interestingly, Blizzard rejected the logic of the pill's promoters that these women can simply be sent elsewhere to complete their abortions. "For good continuity of care, you don't want to be sporadic, you want someone who is going to see you through the whole process and we just aren't equipped to do that in...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.