Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 19, 1994 TAG: 9402190025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
Frances Perrow, spokeswoman of Marie Stopes International, said the Health Department agreed not to prosecute doctors or the nonresident patients to whom they dispense RU-486 if strict conditions, including a two-week stay, are met.
A Health Department spokesman said Britain continues to forbid dispensing the drug to nonresidents, but is prepared to apply a broad definition of residency when it comes to RU-486.
"The basic idea is that they should be here long enough to be sure they are healthy after receiving treatment," department spokeswoman Dominique Baldy said.
Perrow said that under guidelines set by the department, women must pay $500, prove they are less than nine weeks pregnant, obtain the approval of two doctors at the London clinic, and stay long enough in Britain for a follow-up exam a week after the embryo is aborted.
The woman's regular doctor must also be informed.
The procedure takes "the best part of two weeks," she said. The cost and conditions are similar for residents.
RU-486 is not licensed for use in the United States to induce abortions, but President Clinton has called for more research into the drug.
In November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved clinical tests of RU-486 in California to treat women with advanced breast cancer. Those trials are being conducted at the Breast Center and Cancer Institute at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
The German pharmaceutical company Hoechst A.G., which owns the French company that holds the drug's patent, has been reluctant to release it to Americans, partly fearing a boycott of its products by anti-abortion groups.
"We hope making the drug available to American women here will in turn put pressure on the United States to allow the drug to be used there," Perrow said.
The Population Council, a nonprofit contraceptive-research group in New York, expects to refer 12 Americans a week to Marie Stopes for RU-486 abortions, Perrow said.
The drug was made available in Britain in 1991, but has not been widely used, probably because women prefer the speed of a surgical abortion, Perrow said.
Only about 6 percent of the 22,000 women who have abortions each year through Marie Stopes clinics choose RU-486, she said.
RU-486 works by blocking the action of progesterone, a natural steroid hormone essential for maintaining pregnancy.
Initial research has indicated that the drug also may be useful in treating endometriosis, fibroid tumors, breast cancer and benign brain tumors.
by CNB