The Feminist Majority Foundation and its campaign to bring Mifepristone, the early abortion pill, to the United States has been featured in major television shows and newspapers since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug on September 28. With the abortion debate surrounding mifepristone quieted, public debate is finally focusing on the other possible uses of mifepristone – treating brain tumors, ovarian cancer, a severe form of depression, fibroid tumors and endometriosis, all conditions that primarily affect women. In fact, 30 percent of women over 40 years of age suffer from uterine fibroid tumors, which are the cause of 1/3 of hysterectomies. Research on these potential uses was blocked by anti-abortion politics for years, with very few patients having access to the drug. The Feminist Majority Foundation’s compassionate use program and a handful of studies in the United States allowed patients like Dr. Doris Laird, who suffers from a brain tumor, to take mifepristone to shrink her tumor.
Recent articles in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times chronicled the long battle to bring mifepristone to the U.S., acknowledging the impact of FMF’s campaign since 1988. All highlight the possibilities of mifepristone as a treatment for various progestin-dependent tumors and conditions, and discuss the impact of an abortion pill that will de-centralize abortion in the U.S., providing wider access and making it harder for violent anti-abortion extremists to target abortion providers.
