Word: pilling
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After years of steadily declining abortion rates in the U.S., pro-life advocates fear a reversal if the pill encourages women to view abortion more casually. For these activists, the point of the debate about late-term abortion was to draw tight the line between abortion and murder. Mifepristone, argue its supporters, makes abortion look more like birth control, "more like a standard medical treatment than something that has been marginalized and ghetto-ized," notes Boston University ethicist Annas. But even greater availability and a higher comfort level among patients do not mean the total number of abortions will necessarily...
...real battle is still likely to be waged in the streets, for now. Antiabortion activists may not change anyone's mind about the pill--but they could have an effect if they persuade enough doctors that entering this minefield is dangerous to their health and practice. The tactic has worked well for years now; in much of the country, Roe v. Wade might as well not exist, and the only way the abortion pill changes that is if doctors everywhere decide to offer it. "There are a lot of doctors who feel very strongly that women have a right...
Under normal circumstances, Amy would have had to undergo a surgical abortion. But she found a clinic that offered the abortion pill mifepristone on an experimental basis. She thought taking the drug would give her a sense of control. And the regimen seemed simple: first an ultrasound test to make sure she was still in the early weeks of pregnancy, then a dose of mifepristone, which arrests the pregnancy, followed by another drug two days later to expel the mass of embryonic tissue. She was surprised at the pain, however. "It was more than a period," she recalls...
Last week's approval of mifepristone by the Food and Drug Administration means that millions more American women will have the same option. Not to be confused with the morning-after pill, which doctors believe prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall, mifepristone causes miscarriage by blocking the hormone progesterone, which is needed to maintain a pregnancy. Mifepristone is followed 48 hours later by a second drug, called misoprostol, which forces the uterus to contract; the fetus is expelled several hours later. When taken within 49 days of the last period, the two-drug combination...
...rules are actually less restrictive than many of those found in Europe. In Britain the pills are available only in licensed abortion facilities--usually clinics and National Health Service hospitals--and must be taken on the premises. Similar regulations exist in France, which requires four visits over a period of three weeks to a licensed hospital or clinic. Dr. Elizabeth Aubeny, one of the first physicians to test mifepristone, at the Broussais Hospital in Paris, contends there should be more flexibility in allowing women to take misoprostol at home, if they choose. Still, she admits, "there...