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THE CONTROVERSIAL abortion pill RU486 has come under new attack by an
international group of doctors which argues that the pill should be withdrawn
immediately for medical reasons. But Etienne-Emile Baulieu, who developed
RU486, has dismissed the attack as unscientific and ‘playing on people’s
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RU486 is currently available only in France. First launched in 1988,
it was withdrawn a month later under pressure from anti-abortionists, only
to be reinstated 48 hours later under pressure from the French government.
Hoechst, the parent company of Roussel-Uclaf, which makes the drug, initially
held up its marketing to other countries, but Baulieu has said that Roussel-Uclaf
is now free to seek product licences for RU486 in other countries (This
Week, 4 November and 16 December 1989).

RU486 is a steroid hormone which blocks the effect of progesterone,
the natural hormone which is necessary for a pregnancy to be maintained.
It is taken by mouth, and followed two days later by a dose of a prostaglandin,
a substance that makes the uterus contract to expel the so-called products
of conception.

A ‘committee of inquiry’ into the drug was set up in Rome last December
at a congress of doctors opposed to abortion and contraception. Its chairman,
Pierre de Vernejoule, campaigned last year in support of an employee of
Roussel-Uclaf, who was opposed to the new pill.

The committee says that RU486 should be withdrawn in France and not
exported because its use is ‘painful and difficult to handle’. The committee
also claims the drug’s potential dangers and side effects are not known.
It cites reports dating back to 1984, before the correct dosages for RU486
and prostaglandins were established.

The report, published in mid-April, says that abortions using RU486
are ‘dangerous’ for women’s health for various reasons, including the claim
that the drug may encourage breast cancer. Its ‘findings’ have been published
in several popular papers, including the right-wing Le Figaro.

Baulieu has dismissed the findings. ‘What I find sad,’ he says, ‘is
that people with no competence in this field carry out a sort of small-scale
terrorism, using the term ‘expert’ and playing on people’s ignorance.’

At the time of the report’s publication, it was disclosed that the French
health ministry had issued a circular reminding health services of the need
to respect the conditions laid down for the use of prostaglandins. Two women
had suffered heart problems during abortions with RU486.

In response to the report, the French health ministry issued a statement
recalling the satisfactory record of RU486 since it has been in use and
stressing the commitment of the health minister, Claude Evin, to ‘enabling
women who decide on an abortion to have at their disposal the safest methods
currently available’.

More than 40 000 abortions have been carried out in France using RU486,
which, at the end of February, was brought fully into the operation of the
country’s public health service.