The Interim
As the October issue of The Interim went to press the United States Food and Drug administration announced it has given final approval to the abortion pill RU-486, which pro-lifers call a “human pesticide.” The approval process was begun by President Bill Clinton, as one of his first acts in office in 1993.
“Campaign Life Coalition is shocked that a dangerous drug has been given such approval in the U.S. and we will strenuously oppose its acceptance in Canada. This pill is deadly to the preborn child and extremely dangerous for the woman who takes it,” says Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition. Trials of RU-486 have recently begun in various cities across Canada, where the drug has not yet received formal government approval.
Exelgen, the French company owning the rights to the drug, acknowledges the danger. Exelgen founder Edouard Sakiz himself admitted in Le Monde (Aug. 19, 1990) that RU-486 causes women “an appalling psychological ordeal.” This in spite of the fact that abortion pill advocates claim it is less “intrusive” and traumatic for women than a surgical abortion.
RU-486 requires three or four medical visits over one to two weeks and is neither simple, effective nor safe. The woman will deliver a dead baby wherever she happens to be, whether at the doctor’s office or at work or at home. She will also have to return to the doctor to ensure that the baby has been “successfully” aborted, with the possibility she will be advised to undergo a surgical procedure to finish the job.
At press time, it has not been announced what, if any, restrictions the FDA would place on the administration of the drug.
It should be noted that the U.S. rights to RU-486 are held by the Population Council, a non-profit family planning research group based in New York, with Danco as its licensee. Danco has alliances with the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. Considering the potential profit to be made on this pill, pro-lifers say the motives of the promoters must be called into question.
Canadian pro-lifers have always vigorously opposed the expansion of abortion via abortion-inducing drugs. Campaign Life Coalition vowed it will continue its campaign against RU-486 and all abortion.
