Sexual FAQs – VII
Q. What is the Abortion Pill or RU-486?
A. For a decade around the world, several million women have used a pill to end pregnancy in its earliest weeks. Since the end of the year 2000, mifepristone has crossed U.S. borders. Also known as RU-486 or the French abortion pill. Like all abortion methods, mifepristone has been the subject of controversy, in part because it promises to make abortion even safer, more effective and more accessible, especially to rape victims.
Mifepristone was first developed as an early-abortion drug in France in 1988, under the name RU-486. Shortly after being developed the company producing RU-486 suspended its distribution, citing anti-abortion protests in the United States, France, and Germany. The French Minister of Health, acting in “the interests of the public health,” ordered the company to resume its distribution only two days later.
After years of controversy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the drug mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) for use in the United States. The approval may generate significant changes in the way women and their health care providers think about abortion, and also increase the number of possibilities women have when faced with the need for one.
As with any drug, taking mifepristone will be safer if you know something about it before you think about taking it. It is NOT to be used as a birth control method! hand.
Mifepristone (now being marketed under the trade name Mifeprex), comes in a pill form. It is used as an abortion method for the early days of pregnancy.
How does it work?
Mifepristone functions as an antiprogesterone drug, which means that it blocks the receptors of the hormone progesterone, an important hormone in the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. Important for women to know that it can be used only within 49 days of the beginning of the woman’s last menstrual period.
How it is taken?
For the drug to work a woman takes three mifepristone pills. Two days after taking the pills, she returns to her health care provider, who will give her a dose of misoprostol — a drug that causes uterine contractions. Those contractions, in turn, abort the embryo. Two weeks later, the woman again sees her health care provider to ensure that the pills worked completely and that there is no tissue left in the women. Studies have shown that mifepristone is 92 to 95 percent effective.
What are its side effects?
The most common side effects have been: Uterine cramping, bleeding, nausea, fatigue The labeling for mifepristone emphasizes cramping and bleeding as the primary side effects. Bleeding and spotting usually lasts for about nine to sixteen days. Heavy bleeding is possible, but extremely rare. In about one of every 100 women the bleeding becomes heavy enough to require a surgical procedure to stop it.
Who shouldn’t take it?
Mifepristone shouldn’t be used by women who have: Confirmed or suspected ectopic (tubal) pregnancies, an intrauterine device (IUD) in place, experienced chronic failure of their adrenal glands, current, long-term therapy with corticosteroids, a history of allergy to mifepristone, misoprostol, or other prostaglandins, bleeding disorders or are undergoing anticoagulant (blood-thinning) therapy.
How can I get it?
See your health care provider for more information about mifepristone and to discuss using it. Note that the FDA has restricted the use of mifepristone to health care providers who can operate in case a surgical abortion is necessary (if the drug-induced abortion proves incomplete) or if you experience severe bleeding. It’s also available to providers who have made advance arrangements for a surgeon to care for their patients. Planned Parenthood says that it should cost about the same as a surgical abortion, but Danco Laboratories has not yet confirmed that comment.
For More see or listen to: ‘The Morning After Pill‘ and Emergency Contraception.
References:
Associated Press. “FDA Approves Abortion Pill,” The New York Times. September 28, 2000. Food and Drug Administration (U.S.).
“FDA Approves Mifepristone for the Termination of Early Pregnancy.” Health and Human Services (HHS) News. September 28, 2000. Motamed, Susan.
“Mifepristone: The New Face of Abortion.” Planned Parenthood. September, 1999. Accessed September 28, 2000. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/articles/mifepristone Planned Parenthood (U.S.).
“Mifepristone (Formerly Known as RU-486): A Brief History. Accessed September 28, 2000. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/library/ABORTION/mifepristone
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