How have Anti-Abortion Groups reacted to RU 486?
The anti-choice lobby has reacted strongly against RU 486, and has been effective in curtailing its availability. In October 1988, after some company employees had received death threats, Roussel abruptly withdrew the new drug from the market in France, although the French government promptly forced its return. The anti-choice lobby was temporarily successful in the U.S., where a Food and Drug Administration order banned the import of RU 486 from 1989 until 1993. Opponents of abortion have organized boycotts against Roussel-Uclaf, its German parent company, Hoechst A.G., as well as their American affiliates, and have threatened to boycott any other pharmaceutical company which would make RU 486 available. The advocates of RU 486 say that though this is not a perfect drug, it offers a means of early abortion without surgery which is safe, effective, and acceptable to women.
