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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2000)
You look ravishing! Elegant, classic, exquisite jewelry to bring out the best in you. • CjOIDWORKS JL'A C._R.Y ART ATUPR? 169 r. Broadway • 34 3 .2298 Bring in your old games for cash or trade [ BRINGINTHIS AD ] for$5.00off purchase of used video games (minimum *20 purchase) Not valid with any other offer. Expires 11-15-00 Check out our new video gaming chair www.videogamingchair.com Largest distributor of used games anywhere 0099251 1508 Coburg Rd. Ferry Street Bridge 683-5598 2880 Willamette South Eugene 302-3082 Little Caesars' Weekend Special! Saturday & Sunday Hot Lum® ita® 1711 Willamette 343-33^0 W/E. CAR.EL ££>0\J[ \VlIAT Y^U TJ-llNl4l W/LEJ^LY (2.ELAPEJ2. P0LL5. tfNlLINt ® Joil^rcfflcioM FDA permits use of RU-486 By Lauran Neergaard Associated Press WASHINGTON — Capping a bitter 12-year battle, the govern ment on Thursday approved use of the abortion pill RU-486, a major victory for abortion-rights advo cates that could dramatically alter abortion in this country. The long-expected decision by the Food and Drug Administration allows Americans an early-abor tion method already used in France, Britain, China and 10 oth er countries. The action is expect ed to make abortion in the United States more accessible and more private. Coming in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the move also is sure to renew fierce politi cal debate. Republican candidate George W. Bush, whose father’s ad ministration banned RU-486 im ports in 1989, opposes abortion. Vice President Gore supports the pill option. The pill, known chemically as mifepristone and by the brand name Mifeprex, will be available to doctors within a month. Mifepristone, which blocks a hormone vital to sustaining preg nancy, only works during the first seven weeks of pregnancy, when an embryo is about one-fifth of an inch; that is earlier than surgical abortions often are offered. Two days after taking mifepris tone, women take a second drug that causes cramping and bleeding as the embryo is expelled, much like a miscarriage. “For those who choose to have an early termination of their preg nancy, this is a reasonable medical alternative,” said FDA Commis sioner Jane Hehney, who approved mifepristone leased on studies that found it 92 percent to 95 percent effective in causing abortion. Complications are rare; serious bleeding occurs in 1 percent of women. But the pill-caused abor tion requires three doctor visits and, to ensure it is performed ac curately, the FDA restricted its use to doctors with certain training and mandated that detailed pa tient-information brochures be giv en to every woman. Proponents hailed the FDA’s move. Although some doctors al ready use a cancer drug called methotrexate to cause abortion — legal, although not formally FDA approved — they said mifepris tone will increase access to the nonsurgical method. “At long last, science trumps anti-abortion politics and medical McCarthyism,” said Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority Founda tion. Mifepristone may “turn the tide against anti-choice intimidation,” because doctors who don’t offer surgical abortion can use the pill in private offices instead of pro tester-targeted clinics, added C ( For those who choose to have an early termina tion of their pregnancy, this is a reasonable medical alternative. Jane Henney FDA Commissioner Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt. But anti-abortion groups, which fought mifepristone by threatening U.S. drug companies with boy cotts, pledged to continue fighting. “We will not tolerate the FDA’s decision to approve the destruc tion of innocent human persons through chemical abortion,” said Judie Brown of the American Life League. “Never before has the FDA ap proved a drug intended to kill peo ple,” said Rep. Tom Coburn, R Okla., who promised legislation calling for severe limits on which doctors could administer mifepris tone. On the campaign trail, Bush called the FDA’s decision “wrong,” saying “I fear that making this abortion pill widespread will make abortions more and more common.” His campaign said if elected, Bush wouldn’t have the authority to overturn the FDA’s de cision, but he would order a probe of whether the agency’s review was influenced by politics. Gore praised the pill’s availabili ty. “Today’s decision is not about politics, but the health and safety of American women and a woman’s fundamental right to choose,” he said. Health experts note abortions did not increase when RU-486 de buted in France in 1988, or later across Europe. The pill’s journey to the United States began in 1994, when French manufacturer Roussel-Uclaf turned over U.S. rights to the drug to the nonprofit Population Coun cil of New York. The council began clinical trials needed for FDA ap proval and created Danco Labora tories, a small company that will market mifepristone. The FDA in 1996 declared mifepristone a safe and effective early abortion method, but delayed full approval because Danco had problems satisfying manufacturing and other final requirements. President Clinton said the FDA’s four-year investigation shows the decision was “purely one of sci ence and medicine.” He said the FDA “bent over backward to do a lot of serious inquiries. ... They took so long to try to make sure they were making a good deci sion.” But the National Right to Life Committee condemned the FDA’s unprecedented decision to let Dan co keep secret the identity of the manufacturer, reportedly located in China, that actually makes the pills. “The public has a right to know whether the abortion pill will be imported from the People’s Repub lic of China, a nation that is a lead ing source of tainted drugs,” NRLC said. FDA’s Henney cited anti-abor tion violence in her decision to keep the manufacturer secret and to keep secret the names of FDA employees who scrutinized the drug. The FDA also increased se curity in some of its offices. “The climate around the repro ductive rights issue and personal safety issues are in our minds,” she said. But FDA inspectors did travel to the mifepristone factory, and it passed all federal safety and quali ty rules, she said. 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