Abortion Pill

WASHINGTON -- A $10 million donation, said to be the largest private gift ever made for women's causes, will be used as a down payment on a new feminist action program to enable women to "stop begging men for rights."The money will be used, in part, to start a "feminist think tank" to do research on a wide range of issues affecting women's rights.In addition, the gift will be used as initial funding for a direct-action campaign with a controversial first project: to bring the French abortion pill RU-486 to the United States, or to try to invent a substitute for it in U.S. laboratories.

WASHINGTON -- The controversial French-made drug RU-486, used heavily overseas for abortion, may have many uses in treating women's medical problems and might even work as a birth-control pill, a National Academy of Sciences study committee said yesterday.In a broad new review of RU-486's scientific profile, the seven-member NAS committee argued that the drug's potential is so varied that U.S. doctors, scientists, laboratories and research clinics should be doing a multitude of studies on a faster-than-usual timetable.

WASHINGTON -- There is still little prospect that Frenc abortion pill RU-486 will be available in the United States soon, despite President-elect Bill Clinton's willingness to encourage the marketing of the drug in the United States.Officials of the Food and Drug Administration and the French company that makes the drug, Roussel Uclaf, agree that whether the abortion pill is sold in the United States depends mostly on top officials of the German company Hoechst AG, which controls Roussel, and how those corporate officials view abortion politics in Germany and the United States.

WASHINGTON -- The president of the French company that makes the abortion pill RU-486 told FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler yesterday that he believes the drug should be made available in the United States, the commissioner said.Dr. Kessler and the pharmaceutical executive, Edouard Sakiz of Roussel-Uclaf, held a meeting in Rockville, Md., that could signal the first step toward bringing the abortion drug to market in the United States.Dr. Kessler said Mr. Sakiz was willing to discuss how the drug could be brought to market by another company or research zTC institution under an agreement with his company.

It was once touted as a way to move abortion from the clinics, which attract sidewalk protesters and sporadic violence, and into the more private realm of a doctor's office or the patient's home. The so-called abortion pill would address both the personal and the political of a decades-long controversy - and perhaps begin to defuse it. But the drug, more commonly known by its French designation, RU-486, remains mired in many of the same issues that arise when it comes to abortion. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which seemed on course to approve the pill later this year, is considering a series of restrictions that threatens to severely limit its use. "RU-486 was supposed to profoundly change the debate about abortion.

WASHINGTON -- Last year, Lawrence Lader -- the man who orchestrated last week's Supreme Court fight over a French abortion pill -- published a book explaining his goal: "RU 486: The Pill That Could End the Abortion Wars."Mr. Lader lost the first round Friday when the high court blocked a California social worker from taking 12 pills Mr. Lader obtained for her in England.But by rekindling national debate over this easy alternative to surgical abortion, Mr. Lader's supporters think -- and his opponents fear -- that he moved closer to his goal.

WASHINGTON -- Republican legislators urged federal regulators to halt sales of RU-486 yesterday during a congressional hearing designed to draw attention to five deaths linked to use of the abortion pill and a companion drug. "There is a serious problem with RU-486, and failing to address this problem by disguising it, ignoring it, minimizing it or causing confusion is a shameful failure," said Rep. Mark E. Souder, an Indiana Republican. Souder, chairman of the drug policy subcommittee that held the hearing, and Rep. Jean Schmidt, a Republican from Ohio, criticized the Food and Drug Administration for refusing to withdraw RU-486 despite the deaths and other side effects.

NEW YORK - A New York organization said yesterday that it has made its own copy of the French abortion pill, RU-486, and would begin testing to help speed the drug to market in the United States.But another group, which holds the American patent on RU-486, said the tests were unnecessary.The group announcing the new tests, Abortion Rights Mobilization, said it had manufactured some of the pills and hoped to begin testing soon on 2,000 to 3,000 women around the country.The Population Council, a nonprofit research group in New York that obtained the U.S. patent rights to RU-486 two years ago, said, however, that it had just completed clinical trials in which 2,100 women were given the drug to terminate their pregnancies.

WASHINGTON -- Two more women who took the abortion pill RU-486 have died, according to federal drug regulators who are investigating whether the same rare infection that caused four earlier deaths was responsible. In announcing the two additional cases yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an alert urging doctors and patients to follow approved directions for the drug, which is used in combination with another medication, and to look for warning signs or symptoms warranting immediate attention, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or abdominal pain.

The early-abortion pill, RU-486, was approved for use yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration, a milestone victory for abortion-rights advocates who fought for more than a decade to bring the drug to the United States. Proponents said the drug will make abortion a more private matter for thousands of women each year because it can be taken in the home, away from family planning clinics and hospitals. There are 1.5 million abortions performed in this country each year. They said it will also make abortion more accessible to women who live far from family planning centers and other clinics that offer surgical abortions.