RU486 Special Edition

This special issue of The Elliot Institute News explores the harm
of the RU-486 abortion drug to mothers and unborn children,
and the link to forced abortions as well as to population control.

Note: The following article is reprinted with permission from Life Issues Institute.

RU 486, the abortion pill, is used to cause chemical abortions in early pregnancy. Since its controversial approval by the FDA in September of 2000, it can be prescribed to pregnant women of any age, even teenagers. Led by pro-abortion feminists in the 1990�s, the fervent sales pitch for its approval called for a safe, effective, inexpensive and accessible abortifacient.

According to Planned Parenthood�s Alexander Sanger, it represented �one of the most important victories for women in this century.� To Kate Michelman of NARAL, it was the �biggest thing since the birth control pill.�

All rhetoric aside, the reality of RU 486 is that after nearly ten years on the market, this �victory for women� has taken 7 American women�s lives (that we know of), caused serious complications in hundreds of others, and provided a new instrument for the abuse of women.

Population control advocates insist that expanded access to abortion is essential to improving the status and health of women throughout the world. Pro-lifers, on the other hand, are obviously opposed to any effort to expand abortion access around the world.

Many proponents of population control honestly believe that such efforts will expand the rights of women and improve their lives. However, there is another group of population controllers who want to reduce individual rights at the expense of women.

These zealots are are the ones who make excuses for programs that involve coerced sterilizations, forced abortions, or the withholding of food or medical care unless poor women "voluntarily" accept IUDs or Norplant insertions.

Find Additional Resources

Visit AfterAbortion.org for research, news and commentary
Visit TheUnChoice.com for free, user-friendly resources and educational materials
Visit the world's largest online bibliography of studies on the effects of abortion at AbortionRisks.org
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