NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9533

Text File | 1992-12-21 | 5.8 KB | 99 lines

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From: New Liberation News Service <[e-mail]>
Subject: NLNS: Politics of RU-486
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Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 15:32:26 GMT
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The Politics of RU-486
Jessie Stickgold-Sarah, The Thistle

(NLNS)--RU-486 is known to most Americans as "the abortion pill;" it is
generally thought to provide the safest, least traumatic form of abortion
anywhere. But it has also shown potential in the treatment of a number of
medical conditions, and political controversy is overshadowing these
myriad uses. The FDA has imposed an Import Alert on RU-486--without
feedback from researchers--which means that the drug cannot be imported
for personal use in the United States, nor can individuals bring it into the
country for research purposes.
    Although such research could be carried out under certain
circumstances, Roussel-Uclaf, the only manufacturer of RU-486, has
shown no interest in applying for the requisite permits. This is largely due
to a small but vocal minority of anti-abortion activists, who have conducted
a huge letter-writing campaign directed towards both Roussel and the US
government. Some letters claim that RU-486 "has no purpose but to kill
innocent unborn children" and all demand that the drug be absolutely
banned from use.
    The White House has been quick to comply, prohibiting its use as
an abortifacient and giving no encouragement to research proposals.
Roussel is seriously worried about the damage which could result from the
boycott these activists have threatened, and has steadfastly refused to argue
on the drug's behalf in the US. It is not clear whether Roussel or the FDA is
more to blame for the deterrence of research on RU-486, but certainly both
are at fault.
    RU-486 blocks progesterone, estrogen and glucocorticoids. As an
antiprogestin it can be used to treat breast cancer, which strikes  one woman
in nine and kills one woman every twelve minutes, and meningioma, an
inoperable brain tumor causing impaired mental function, affecting between
6000 and 9000 people a year in the US; it has also shown potential as a
contraceptive. As an antiestrogen it has demonstrated potential for
supression of estrogen-dependent cancer cells. Cortisol, a glucocorticoid, is
a hormone that affects insulin, glucose, proteins, and stress reactions, so
that RU-486 might be a treatment for hypertension and diabetes, to name
only a few of a number of medical conditions.
    Ronald Chesemore, Associate Commissioner for Regulatory
Affairs, FDA, stated as his rationale for imposing Import Alert restrictions
on RU-486 the fact that he "became concerned that the publicity regarding
the availability of these drugs overseas might create a demand in this
country, which could in turn foster importation of these unapproved drugs
leading to unsupervised use and/or clandestine distribution."
    Although studies on over 50,000 women have shown the drug to be
safe and effective when used under a doctor's supervision, and though
thousands of drugs are currently in use in the United States with precisely
those provisions, the FDA states that it believes that RU-486 "could pose a
risk to the safety of the user" and that such a risk is unacceptable.
    Dozens of medical researchers who have established the drug's
many uses have attested as to its worth; several doctors cited cases of
patients who had left the country to get treatment, because RU-486, the only
antiprogesterone proven safe for humans, is unavailable in the US. In June
1990 the American Medical Association's House of Delegates, representing
290,000 doctors across the country, voted nearly unanimously to admit
RU-486 to the country. Despite the massive body of evidence available, all
of it indicating the safety and effectiveness of RU-486, the FDA refuses to
consider taking the drug off the Import Alert list.
    It is unfortunate that controversy over the political issues of abortion
has obscured the non-abortifacient properties of RU-486; it is disturbing
that the organizations that classify themselves under the umbrella term of
"pro-life" seem so little concerned with the welfare of others past the
moment of birth. That a group supporting the ban on RU-486 on the
grounds that it "maims mothers and will enable Planned Parenthood to
perpetuate the idea that human life is cheap" is willing to deny the proven
and potential benefits of this drug to hundreds of thousands of terminally ill
people is distressingly hypocritical.
    To recognize the medical importance of RU-486 in non-abortion-
related areas is vital, but the possibilities the drug offers for making abortion
a private, safe procedure are equally important. Far more mothers have been
maimed -- or killed -- by back-alley abortions performed by untrained
personnel than by any drug as rigorously tested as RU-486 has been. It is
inexcusable to value the existence of an unborn fetus over the existence of a
woman. It is horrific that RU-486, a drug that is desperately needed for
many, many reasons, is kept out of the country by a group of people
claiming compassion for life; by a company that values its profits over the
potential good it could do; and a governmental agency succumbing to the
factually incorrect arguments of one group, at the expense of numerous
others. The question of whether this drug is allowed into the country should
be a question of medical value and safety, not a question of politics.

The Thistle can be reached at W20-413, 84 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
MA 02139; [phone]; [e-mail]

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