I already dated myself yesterday. So, this will just be an appendix to that.

I remember when RU-486 was expected to change how folks considered abortion.   Because abortion- not just in America- but in most places around the world- involves way more politics and religion that it should.

Way back in the very late 1970s- no later than 1980- did the French firm, Roussel-Uclaf (a subsidiary of Hoechst) develop this pharmaceutical that would prevent more than 95% of fertilized eggs from developing into a human.  Actually, what the drug does is block the functionality of the hormone progesterone (as seen in the above diagram), which means embryos can’t implant in the uterine lining.  (That actually is the action of the drug mifepristone.)   Coupling that with misoprostol (this drug causes the uterus to contract) meant that any fetus would be expelled from the body.

It took the French authorities some 8 years to approve the drug.  Which immediately led a bunch of “right-to-lifers”  (don’t you always find it amazing that these folks all believe in the protection of an unformed, unborn human up until it is born- and then they don’t want to help it grow and be nourished) to prevent the drug’s distribution.  Until the Health Minister forced it back into the marketplace.  (That was about the time that Hoechst returned the rights to the drug to one of its inventors, Dr. Edouard Sakiz, who set up Exelgyn to market the drug.)

But, that was just in France.  The right-to-lifers still precluded its distribution in the USA.   It stayed that way until a teeny little company (Danco Laboratories-which deliberately maintains a very low profile in the US, only disclosing a PO Box address, to supplement its Cayman Island headquarters- with nary a web site!) got the rights to the drug in America and received FDA approval.

Of sorts.

Because the FDA caved into political pressure and imposed all sorts of conditions on the drug.  Not because of safety reasons (despite the BS excuses they provided), but to placate the vocal rightwingers.

The FDA required physicians to date the pregnancy (which means the dreaded ultrasound test- the one the rightwingers always try to impose upon those seeking a legal abortion before initiating the procedure).  And, the women had to agree that a surgical abortion might still be needed for those 5% of the cases where the drug fails to achieve the desired result, that they read all the instructions accompanying the drug (and to follow them all), take the drug at a practitioner’s office, and will return for a checkup.   If you read these instructions carefully, you can see that three separate trips to a doctor would be necessary.  (Have you seen such a protocol for other approved drugs? Of course not!  Especially since less than 3 in 1000 patients ever have needed a hospital visit after taking the drug.)

You’ll also notice that these rules mean the drug can’t be prescribed via telemedicine or provided to women who want it by mail.  (Just so you know, 20 years later- that means last year- the FDA finally removed the provision that the drug had to be administered at a physician’s office- which opened the drug to be delivered by mail.   All the other provisions are in place- plus the pharmacy has to be certified to distribute the drug.   [Only 40 of the some 20,000 drugs in America have such a stringent provision.])

Oh, and the chicken s… pharmacies – CVS and Walgreens- have expressed no desire to register for the drug’s distribution.

It get worse.  Those GOP run states (ok, 19 of our 50 states) demand that a clinician must be present when the drug is taken.  (Again, no telemedicine applications.)  And, Texas recently banned the mailing of the drug.  Georgia plans to follow suit.  (Note: States cannot regulate  a federally approved  drug to be delivered by the US Postal Service.  Although SCOTUS [Supreme Court of the United States] seems to have lost the concept of Stare decisis [standing by what has been decided] of late, the Courts have ruled that states lack the authority to overstep the FDA. )

Anybody want to take up the case for RU486?  Especially as it seems SCOTUS will outlaw the practice of abortion in the USA this term.

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