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CNN Today

FDA Approves Abortion Pill

Aired September 28, 2000 - 2:01 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: It's been available to women in Europe for years now. Today, the United States government told American women they, too, can take a series of pills to end a pregnancy. It's a regimen commonly referred to as the abortion pill. The FDA announcement comes just six weeks before the presidential election. It could reinvigorate abortion as a volatile campaign issue.

Let's begin our coverage with medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FDA approval gives a woman another choice if she decides to end a pregnancy early.

GLORIA FELDT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD: It will enable them to choose, if they choose to terminate a pregnancy, to do that earlier, to do it without surgery. And for many women, that is a very positive thing.

ROWLAND: The new so-called "abortion pill" will be marketed in the United States as mifeprex. It's generic name is mifepristone. An abortion with medications involves several steps. The woman takes mifepristone in a physician's office or clinic. Two days later, she returns to take a second drug, a hormone-inducing drug like misoprostol, which is already FDA approved.

DR. MITCHELL CREININ, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: Mifepristone is not a magic abortion pill by itself. It's part of a treatment regimen. The second medication is just as important.

ROWLAND: In the United States, the combination of mifepristone and misoprostol has been studied in over 2,000 women.

CREININ: And what we did find was that for women that were less than seven weeks pregnant, that the medications were about 92 percent effective at causing a complete abortion very safely.

ROWLAND: A woman who participated in a study of mifepristone says the side effects were minimal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you had minor cramping with it, but it was over. Once it started, it was over quick. ROWLAND: Her abortion was completed three hours after taking the second medication at home, though in some women the process can take up to a week and involve heavy bleeding and cramping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is -- I hate to use the word easy, but it's an OK thing if you make the decision and this is how you want to have it.

ROWLAND: Although surveys suggest more physicians would be willing to offer medical abortions than surgical abortions, access to the new drug is a concern.

CREININ: But right now, there's lots of laws in many states that restrict abortion practice, that restrict the practice of medicine to allow a clinician or a physician to provide abortion services. Medical abortion is not going to be any different.

ROWLAND: The cost of an abortion with the newly-approved drug is expected to be similar to a surgical abortion: about $300.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLAND: Together, additional information about mifepristone, the Population Council, which is a nonprofit research group that sponsored this particular product, has agreed to do post-marketing studies.

And Lou, what that means is that they will continue to follow women, who choose this particular option and compare their outcomes to women who choose surgical abortions. And this is to continue to monitor safety.

WATERS: Why would doctors be more willing to offer a medical rather than a surgical procedure?

ROWLAND: A lot of that has to do with privacy. Obviously, there is a lot of controversy that surrounds this issue. So they believe that this particular option would be more private for women. So therefore, they would be willing to do that in their offices.

Also they do want to see that doctors who do use these medications to be able to perform surgical abortions, and if they don't, they need to have a plan in place to have someone nearby, who can perform the surgical abortion in case that is needed, in case this option fails.

WATERS: One thing in your piece that caught my ear was the doctor said that it is 92 percent effective, the medical procedure. It's very safe. But all the bleeding doesn't make it sound safe to me.

ROWLAND: That's right. There's always bleeding. There is bleeding involved in this particular procedure. But in some cases that bleeding can be severe. In one out of 100 women, the bleeding may be severe enough to require a surgical intervention. So it is not without risk. But that's a small percentage of women. With surgical abortions, you also have safety concerns there, because it is surgery and anesthesia is involved.

WATERS: When will all of this be available to women in the United States?

ROWLAND: Well, according to Danco Laboratories, that is a pharmaceutical group that will be distributing and marketing this particular drug, it should be on the market in about a month. It will be distributed through doctor's offices and clinics, such as Planned Parenthood.

WATERS: All right, Rhonda Rowland, medical correspondent, on the abortion drug approved for sale in the United States.

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