Word: ru
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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China and France last month became the first nations to sanction the use of one such preparation, the French-made abortion pill called RU 486 (trade name Mifepristone). Antiabortionists in the U.S. and abroad lost no time protesting. The Washington-based National Right to Life Committee last week threatened to boycott products of any U.S. firm that attempts to market such pills. The group's ire was further raised when the New England Journal of Medicine last week gave high marks to another abortion drug, epostane, developed by Sterling Drug Inc. "These pills kill unborn babies," said committee spokesman Richard...
...system's older trains -- creaking, crotchety and covered with indescribable graffiti. I looked closer at one cluster of squiggles, spray-painted by the ubiquitous Taki 183. Was it . . .? Could it be . . .? Yes, there in Babylonian script were the opening words of the Gilgamesh Epic: "Sha naq-ba i-mu-ru...
...RU 486 works by adhering to certain hormone receptors in the uterus that under normal circumstances accept progesterone, the substance that prepares the uterine lining to receive a fertilized egg. Because the presence of RU 486 blocks the action of progesterone, the uterine lining sloughs off, and the embryo is expelled, as an unfertilized egg is during a normal period. Although bleeding is usually heavier than during menstruation, only a pregnancy test prior to receiving the drug will tell a woman for certain whether she has actually conceived...
...psychological consequences of this uncertainty can be significant. "We call it contragestation, not abortion," says Couzinet. "Many women think of it as an induction of a menstrual period. Compared with classical abortion, the procedure is so much better tolerated emotionally by women." RU 486 is expected to be a boon to victims of rape and incest, and to women who cannot, or do not, take the pill -- "especially," says Couzinet, "young women and teenagers whose sexual activity is very irregular and infrequent...
Part of the reason RU 486 appears to cause so few side effects is that it remains in the body for less than 48 hours. In addition, it apparently does not impair fertility. One woman in the test group took RU 486 one month, aborted, then became pregnant again and came back for another dose the next month. No information is yet available on what effect RU 486 might have on the fetus if the drug fails to induce abortion; all of the 15 women who sustained their pregnancies after receiving the drug had clinical abortions. Dr. Couzinet hopes...