By Randall K. O'Bannon, Ph.D., NRL-ETF Director of Education & Research

Editor's note. The following appeared in the October issue of National Right to Life News. To subscribe to the "pro-life newspaper of record," call us at 202-626-8828 or download a subscription form at www.nrlc.org/news/subscribe.html.

On September 28, 2000, with just months to go in the Clinton Administration, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved RU486, the chemical abortion "pill," which is actually the first part of a two-drug combination. In the 10 years that have passed, this abortifacient has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 1.4 million unborn children and has been associated with the deaths of at least a dozen mothers.

And its reach is growing. According to the Associated Press, RU486–also known by its generic name mifepristone or its U.S. trade name Mifeprex–is now responsible for about a quarter of all abortions done in the first nine weeks of pregnancy and about 15% of all U.S. abortions overall (Washington Post, 9/27/10).

While the number and rate of abortions have gone down over the past 20 years (returning to levels not seen since the early days of Roe), that decrease has slowed, and in some states, perhaps even begun to reverse, since the approval of RU486.

It is not that these new chemical abortions are safer or easier–they aren't. But the abortion industry, to a degree, has been successful in promoting both a new product and a new image. Though not nearly to the extent that the pill's promoters hoped, RU486 has brought in both new customers and new abortionists. Worse yet the industry is now taking steps to expand its use further.

A growing problem

Promoters hoped that RU486 would open up whole new venues for them, bringing general practitioners, pediatricians, and a whole lot more ob-gyns into their ranks. For the most part, that hasn't happened (NRL News, September 2009). But while the use of RU486 has brought in a few new abortionists, more significantly, its use has turned a lot of smaller "family planning" centers into abortion clinics.

The Guttmacher Institute said in its last published study of national abortion statistics that the number of abortions performed in the United States declined from 1,312,990 in 2000 to 1,206,200 in 2005, a drop of about 8%. The number of abortionists would have dropped 8% too if not for the doctors adding RU486 to their practices. As it was, the number of "providers" only dropped 2% during that same time frame. How many more lives would have been spared if not for these new abortionists is speculation, but it is likely to have been a significant number.

Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion chain, tells the Associated Press that it has more than doubled the number of clinics offering abortion since RU486 was approved. Planned Parenthood's vice president of medical affairs Vanessa Cullins says that 10 years ago, 151 of its clinics offered surgical abortion. Today, Cullins says, 322 of the organization's centers do abortions, "nearly half of them" says the AP, "relatively small clinics that offer the pill but not surgery" (Washington Post, 9/27/10).

The opening wedge of this expansion is found in Iowa, where Planned Parenthood's affiliate, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, is offering webcam abortions using RU486 at 16 of its clinics. Women in towns with smaller centers can go to the clinic, have an ultrasound and an exam by a nurse, and then consult via webcam with an abortionist back in Des Moines. If the abortionist is satisfied that the woman is ready, he pushes a button on his computer which opens a drawer containing RU486 and the accompanying prostaglandin (see NRL News, June 2010).

Considering the risk that accompanies every chemical abortion, it is a situation fraught with danger. If the woman begins to hemorrhage, if an ectopic pregnancy ruptures, if her abortion is incomplete, where will she turn? The click of a mouse a hundred miles away will do her little good at that point (see Today's News & Views, 8/24/10, at www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/index.html).

Nevertheless, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland's CEO Jill June tells the Associated Press that she is fielding numerous inquiries from all across the nation asking about the project (Washington Post, 9/27/10).

Countering the chemical menace

As long as abortion is legal, it will be difficult to pull RU486 off the market. There are, however, several things that can be done to deter demand for the drug and reduce the risk that women taking RU486 will face.

Ohio passed legislation making the FDA protocol mandatory. This ensures that doctors follow the recommendations of the government agency in regards to dosages, gestation limits, visits, and methods of administration. The state supreme court upheld the law, but the law is currently enjoined pending litigation in federal court. Other states are considering similar legislation.

Oklahoma passed a law requiring a doctor be physically present to give out the RU486 pills, eliminating the possibility of webcam chemical abortions. Several states are looking at similar legislation in that area as well.

The biggest deterrent is probably education. Even 10 years later, there is still a lot of hype and disinformation out there, typified by the "live abortion tweeter," who thought her chemical abortion would be over in "4-8 hours." Few women truly realize how difficult and dangerous the process really is.

The more they know what chemical abortions are really like--the heavy bleeding, the painful cramps, the uncomfortable side effects--and the more they understand about the demonstrated risks of injury and death, the more they know about the unique human lives that are lost with every abortion, chemical or surgical, the more they know about positive, life-affirming alternatives to abortion, the more they'll turn away from RU486.

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