Stockholm
Stockholm’s Karolinska Hospital has announced it will test abortion pill RU-486 on 30 women for six months to establish whether a single monthly dose could prevent pregnancy.
RU-486 is made by Roussel-Uclaf of France.
Florida, U.S.A.
A strong pro-life advocate, Ileana Ros Lehtinen, defeated a strong pro-abortion candidate, Gerald Richmond, August 29 to gain the Florida seat in the U.S. House of Representatives of the late Claude Pepper, Democrat. Abortion was a central part of the campaign until it became clear that Ros Lehtinen was drawing ahead. After that, reports the Wanderer (September 14), the media set the election solely in an ethnic framework – the Cuban-born Ros Lehtinen against the Jewish Richmond. When the election was over the New York Times denied abortion had been an issue.
Tallahassee, Florida
Several proposals by Governor Bob Martinez (R) to help limit abortions (seven day wait, no public funding, test for fetal viability) were turned down by a Senate Committee in the Florida Legislature in early October by a vote of 3 to 2.
Washington, D.C.
In votes of 216-206 and 212-207 the House of Representatives voted on October 11 to add rape and incest as reasons for abortions to the sole reason permitted under the 1981 “Hyde” amendment, namely when the life of the mother is at stake. The House also approved federal funding for such abortions. President Bush announced that he would veto the measure.
The District of Columbia is not a state and, therefore, is governed directly by the House of Representatives.