Ru 486 Misconceptions Myths and Morals - ressourcesfeministes

The Role of Prostaglandins: Known and Unknown Dangersperspective of protecting the profession, rather than genuinecare for women. Kajanoja (1983), in a review of PG-inducedsecond trimester pregnancies, warned of the stressful natureof the procedure and the possible repercussions ifimprovements were not forthcoming (p. 145):I have observed that inductions lasting more than one dayand night are very distressing, and should be regarded asfailures… The severity of the side-effects varies frompatient to patient. In some women they are verydistressing, and certainly limit the use of prostaglandins.If it is intended to administer PGs to a woman, she shouldbe informed of the advantages and disadvantages.Otherwise, we in the Nordic countries might find ourselvesin the same situation as the Federal Republic of Germany,where a women’s movement has been formed against PGs,the doctors who use them and the pharmaceuticalcompanies who produce them…Nowhere in the current discussion about chemical abortionis it mentioned that this is a case of ‘déjà vu’. In the late 70s,chemical abortion with the PG sulprostone was introducedfor first trimester abortion and hailed by gynecologists as a‘safer’ abortion method. Especially in Germany, manyhospitals advocated it as the sole method to terminate firsttrimester pregnancies: an argument strikingly similar to thecurrent promotion of RU 486/PG by some of its proponents.However, PG abortion met with considerable resistance.The feminist health movement protested sharply against itsintroduction in Germany and Switzerland (e.g. Les Frondeuses,1979:3–4). With the slogan ‘For Humane Abortion—AgainstProstaglandins’, health activists from Berlin and Hamburgexposed it as a form of medical violence against women duringa tribunal against the § 218 (the German abortion §) in 1980(Gruppe Prostaglandine, 1981:3).A year earlier, in 1979, two feminist lawyers had already97