Ru 486 Misconceptions Myths and Morals - ressourcesfeministes

The Role of Prostaglandins: Known and Unknown Dangersthe frequency of serious complications to 20 per cent ratherthan the reported four per cent. Further, if the 76 per cent ofwomen who are reported to find epostane preferable todilatation and curettage are viewed from a critical direction,this represents non-approval from one woman in every four.It does not require too much imagination to predict that the20 per cent of women, judged by our criteria to haveexperienced severe complication(s), are significantlyrepresented within the repor ted 24 per cent of women whodid not prefer epostane to a conventional abortion.A comparison of the consequences of epostaneadministered during a first trimester pregnancy terminationwith those from RU 486 was reported from a study ofSwedish women by Odlind and Birgerson (1987), Thecomplete abortion rate was 73 per cent in the epostane-treatedwomen, compared with only 61 per cent in two RU 486treatment groups. Adverse effects were, however, morefrequent in the epostane-treated women, with nausea and/orvomiting, together with pain and headache, resulting fromRU 486 and epostane. In terms of complete abortion, theseresults were reported to ‘clearly indicate’ that neither epostanenor the RU 486 method was superior to vacuum aspirationor PG treatment This comment supports our majorcontention that RU 486 is not an improved abortion methodwhen compared with PG-induced terminations. And sinceconventional abortion methods are markedly preferable tothose using PGs, support for a chemical cocktail whichincludes both RU 486 and a PG analogue, is an illogical andunreasonable expectation.While epostane has been shelved and the ZK analoguesplaced in reserve, RU 486 has survived and continues to bepromoted, due in no mean part to the extraordinary effortsof its prime-mover, Etienne Baulieu, rather than its scientificmerit. As such its days are limited to the point where therhetoric ceases to shelter a pill that was mistakenly identifiedas ‘a miracle’. In fact, new RU 486/PG ‘cocktails’ continue109