Ru 486 Misconceptions Myths and Morals - ressourcesfeministes

RU 486United States, it stated: ‘This is not an abortion issue; this isan issue of scientific research for a drug that can be useful formany different medical problems’ (Lee, 1990:2). TheAssociation feared that women’s health activists would importthe drug, and delegates supporting the resolution lamentedthat the drug would be used without proper medicalsupervision. The other side of this fear is that RU 486/PGwould be launched outside the parameters of medical control.The push for medical control of abortion is in keepingwith the historical position of doctors in the west toward allforms of reproductive technologies, including birthing andbirth control, as well as abortion methods. Historically, itwas the medical lobby that influenced law and public policy,keeping birth control and abortion under the control ofphysicians. Robert Dickinson, a leading advocate forgynecologists in the early 20th century, who promotedcontraception with Margaret Sanger, urged his physiciancolleagues to keep birth control in their own hands and notlet it go to the radicals (Gordon, 1976:249–300). The radicals,of course, were mostly women who were demanding birthcontrol along with political and legal change. Many of thesewomen succumbed to the pressure promoting physiciancontrol and the strict medicalization of birth control.Ultimately, when birth control was approved in the UnitedStates, legislation mandated that only doctors could import,mail, and dispense it.Reproductive technological history seems to be repeatingitself. The current feminist campaigns for abortion and forRU 486/PG seem confined in this same straitjacket ofadvocating for abortion choices for women, but within theboundaries established by the medical profession andpopulation planners. Population organizations, such as thePopulation Crisis Committee and the Population Council,the developer of Norplant, have sponsored research on RU486/PG and are promoting its distribution.Of concern is the current promotional collaboration116