Approval of abortion pill has major side effects

The approval of RU-486 could cause serious problems for everyone.

Termed as a medical abortion, the RU-486 procedure is different from having a surgical abortion.

In the latter procedure, the pregnancy is terminated through surgery, which is how legal abortions are performed in the United States.

In the former procedure, a woman would bypass the surgery and take the drug in her physician's office.

A study, reported in The Los Angeles Times, said that experts predicted that the medical community will be cautious in accepting RU-486 and that the drastic changes envisioned by advocates will take years to achieve.

Further, advocates for the abortion pill are probably heralding the good news, but it does not mean that it will reform the practice of abortion in America.

It's true that it will provide another option for women in deciding which way to terminate her pregnancy.

But it is an option that is laden with flaws.

There are a variety of reasons why this abortion drug should be kept out of the United States.

For one, the L.A. Times reported that the pill has many side effects, including cramping, vomiting and nausea.

Another reason that RU-486 should not be a choice for a woman who decides to terminate her pregnancy is the many visits to the doctor's office to have the procedure performed.

It is not a simple popping of a pill to complete the abortion. A woman would have to visit the doctor's office three times to have the abortion done.

The first visit to the doctor's office is for an initial physical exam and taking of three RU-486 pills by mouth.

Then the patient has to insert four Cytotec pills vaginally. The second visit is for the doctor to check the patient to make sure there are no complications. If the abortion is not complete, the doctor has to readminister the Cytotec pills.

The final visit is necessary if there are further complications.

If this is the case, the doctor has to extract the embryo from the body, much like what happens in a surgical abortion, the L.A. Times reported.

On top of that, if the doctor is not a gynecologist, he or she will have to send the patient to outside clinics or to other doctors -- turning the decision to forego the surgery and use the pill into a nightmare.

In like manner, the drug is approved only for women in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. But in the United States, approximately half of all abortions take place later than that.

Seven weeks can hardly be enough time for a woman to decide what to do.

When you take into consideration that many women don't find out they are pregnant until at least four to five weeks into the pregnancy, seven weeks seems to be only a blink of the eye.

This may be one reason why only 20 percent of women in France seeking abortions choose to use RU-486, even though this method has been offered there for the last 10 years.

In the United States now, there are major problems with anti-abortionists who protest outside of clinics.

With the passage of this pill, this could cause even more problems for more women and more doctors.

The United States should think twice before opening up a can of worms by allowing RU-486 into the country.

Tino Poti is a reporter for the Daily Forty-Niner.