A four-month trial conducted by the University of Edinburgh reveals promising results for the use of mifepristone as a contraceptive. Professor David Baird, faculty in the department of reproductive and developmental sciences, said mifepristone was 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, and showed no major side effects for the 90 women in the trial. Mifepristone worked as a contraceptive by preventing ovulation. Its use as a contraceptive has been speculated since the early 1990s, and Baird is calling for a larger trial, conducted by a drug manufacturer, to further explore this option.
Early articles on mifepristone note that a continuous low dose of mifepristone, like the dose administered in the Edinburgh University trials, does not interfere with estrogen levels, and so does not put women at an increased risk of early osteoporosis.
An FDA decision on mifepristone approval is expected by September 30. For 12 years, the Feminist Majority Foundation has been leading a campaign to make mifepristone available in the U.S. Take Action by telling the Food and Drug Administration and President Clinton that American women will not wait any longer for this reproductive right!
