By Randall K. O'Bannon, NRLC Director of Education

With Italy having officially approved RU486, one of Europe's last holdouts against the chemical abortifacient has fallen.

Though it initially authorized the sale back in July, AIFA, Italy's national pharmaceutical agency, held off on official final approval after encountering objections from the government and the Vatican. An Italian Senate committee asked the agency to rethink its decision in light of safety and other concerns.

AIFA upheld its original decision on December 2. The decision became official when it pushed its view in the Italian government's official journal on December 9.

However, AIFA ruled that RU486 would not be sold at pharmacies but would only be administered in hospitals. Supporters of the abortion pill are objecting to the hospital stay.

The drug is also to be offered by doctors to women who are no more than seven weeks pregnant. In other European countries, the official cut off is nine weeks. Complications increase and effectiveness decreases the farther along a woman is.

The cautions of the AIFA are well founded. Several women in the U.S. have died after using the drug and hundreds of others have suffered serious complications like hemorrhage, infection, or the rupture of an undetected ectopic pregnancy.

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Part One