The Use of Mifepristone to Terminate a Pregnancy The medication "mifepristone" was invented in France by Dr. Etienne-Emile Baulieu in 1980. It is widely know as "RU-486" throughout North America. The letters is taken from the initials of the pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf. The "486" is an arbitrary lab serial number. 1 It was first introduced in France, where it is called Mifegyne. ® It has been used, in combination with prostaglandin medication, to induce abortions in about 500,000 women over almost 2 decades. 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. 11 In 1999, mifespristone was approved for marketing in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands and Spain. 15 Danco Laboratories, the U.S. distributor expected to be selling the pill in that country by the end of 1999. 11 That did not happen; FDA finally approved the pill for U.S. distribution on 2000-SEP-28. It will be distributed under the name "Early Option Pill." Regulation Difficulties: In late 1988, Roussel-Uclaf started distribution of the drug in France. But they withdrew it after some of its personnel had received death threats. The French government forced the company to return RU-486 to the market. Claude Evin, the French health minister called "RU-486 the moral property of women, not just the property of the drug company." Pro-life pressure on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration caused them to ban the importation of RU-486 into the United States until 1993. Boycotts were organized against Roussel-Uclaf, ... ... middle of paper ... ...he Population Council, 2000-MAY-25. Their web site is at: *http://www.popcouncil.org* Dave Clark, "FDA could offer RU-486 restrictions," Focus on the Family, at:*http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/A0011782.html* "FDA approves abortion pill in United States," MSNBC, 2000-SEP-28, at: *http://www.msnbc.com/news/467301.asp* Tom Curry, "FDA decision has political impact," *http://www.msnbc.com/news/469014.asp* S. Boyd, "Give us liberty: The approval of RU-486 isn't about morals, it's about optons," Salon.com at: *http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/09/18/medical_abortion/index.html* (This may be a temporary posting) "Abortion Issues," Gallup Organization, at: *http://www.gallup.com/poll/indicators/indabortion.asp* Martha Lkeder, "Lawmakers try to protect women from RU-486," Focus on the Family, at: *http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/A0013218.html*
Milbauer, Barbara. The Law Giveth: Legal Aspects of the Abortion Controversy. Atheneum, New York: 1983.
The crime led to a major change in the distribution of over the counter medication. Over the counter medication was now supposed to be
“Pure Food and Drug Act 1906.” 34 U.S. Stats. 768, quoted in Medicine in the Americas, Bethesda, Maryland: National Library of Medicine, 2004. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22116/.
was approved in 1982 and in another form, that is to be taken orally rather than
In the 1950’s, the search was on for a reliable oral contraceptive. Research began based
...ion, scholars in the field are studying other medications to find a more effective one to eradicate the disease,
... become a reality until she met physician Gregory Pincus in 1951. Pincus, a medical expert in human reproduction, was willing to take on this project with her to find a safe, effective, female-controlled contraceptive. They collaborated with their sponsor, Katharine McCormick, to create Enovid, the first oral contraceptive that was invented and approved by the FDA in 1960.
that law was called the Pure Food and Drug Act. By the 1930s, muckrakers, consumer protection groups, and regulators through the government began fighting for stronger reinforcement from the government by publicizing a list of products that were breaking the 1906 law, including radioactive drinks, mascara which caused blindness, and fake cures for diabetes and tuberculosis. “The proposed law was not able to get through the Congress of the United States for five years, but was rapidly made into law after the outcry over the 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide tragedy, in which over 100 people died after using a drug made with a toxic, unknown
The ways in which a woman could have an abortion were high in numbers. According to Knight (1977), woman could purchase medicines and drugs at a chemist to acquire an abortion, drugs such as quinine. There was also a number of cases of lead poisoning, as a doctor had seen 100 cases of it from 18...
Warren, M. A. (1973) 'On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion', Monist, vol. 57, no. 1.
The first step towards mass production was gaining the support of the public. World War 2 allowed penicillin to gain popularity because of its impact on the allied forces. Because of the widespread use in the war and because of production rate, the price of penicillin dropped from 20$ per vial to one dollar per vial (Hamblin 240). This price drop allowed it to become more accessible to the public, and by the 1950’s penicillin was being used to trea...
Hinman, Lawrence. “Abortion: A Guide to the Ethical Issues.” May 13, 2010. University of San
Many people throughout the world visit the United States every year to receive medical treatment. This is due to our excellent pharmaceutical industry as it spends million of dollars and many hours of research to come up with what we can only describe as “miracle” drugs and treatments. Part of the success of many of these medications is because the pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated by policies that protect the public from accessing drugs that have not been fully tested and found to be “safe”. However, this was not the case until the late 1990s and early 2000s. One time in history that highly influenced the strict regulations we currently have was the nationwide contamination of patients through blood transfusion or by consuming medications
Warren, Mary Anne , and Mappes and D. DeGrazia. "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion." Biomedical Ethics 4th (1996): 434-440. Print.
“One woman dies every 7 minutes around the world due to an unsafe illegal abortion” (Abortion Statistics). Laws against abortion do not stop abortion; they just make them less safe. “For over 15 years, medical evidence has indicated that mifepristone is as safe or safer than commonly used medications” (Mifepristone Safety Overview). Mifepristone, also known as “RU-486” or the “abortion pill” is a prescription drug that is used to end a pregnancy that is less than seven weeks along. Mifepristone has been used, in combination with other medications for medical abortions since 1988. Mifepristone is a steroid that works by blocking the hormone progesterone, which is necessary to sustain pregnancy. Without this hormone, the lining of the uterus breaks down, the cervix (opening of the uterus or womb) softens and bleeding begins. I think that the RU-486 abortion pill should be encouraged because taking it is a pro-choice decision, the rare health risks and it could help reduce injuries and deaths caused by unsafe illegal abortions.