A report published yesterday in the Medical Journal of Australia found that women were overwhelmingly satisfied with medical abortions using mifepristone (RU-486) and prostaglandin.
Thirty-eight women who had abortions with RU-486 and prostaglandin were surveyed, and they rated their satistaction with the process as an average of 4.5 out of 5. Of the 15 who had had surgical abortions previously, all of them preferred RU-486.
Unfortunately, the drug will remain banned in Australia as both a morning-after pill and an abortifacient. Because of a law passed last year, RU-486 cannot go through the Therapeutic Goods Aministration as it normally would. Australia’s The Age says political pressure will keep the drugs from being approved by the federal Health Minister, despite the survey’s positive findings.
Professor David Healy, chairman of Monash University’s department of obstetrics and gynecology, said that by preventing the legalization of RU-486, the government had “damaged the health of Australian women.” He said that Medicare currently pays for 75,000 surgical abortions each year, and that approval of RU-485 as at least a morning-after pill would reduce the cost of abortions. He also believes that women are entitled to have a choice between surgical and medical abortions, since both procedures are equally safe and effective.
