U.S.

It's No Magic Pill

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 29, 2000 / 9:08 PM EDT / CBS

Magic pill? Easy Access? Not so fast. That's what some legal experts are saying when it comes to assessing the impact of the newly approved abortion drug Mifepristone, known here as Mifeprex and formerly known as RU-486.

"Mifepristone is going to face more restrictions than any other drug in the United States," says Janet Benshoof, president of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, an abortion rights advocacy group.

As CBS News Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports, the group maintains that state laws, not federal Food and Drug Administration regulations, are the biggest hurdle to the notion of improved access to abortion drugs and abortions.

"The FDA didn't pre-empt state laws and say 'Oh, now here's a pill. No more state laws harassing women and doctors doing abortions.' They didn't do that at all," she says.

That means the hundreds of laws on the books governing surgical abortions will apply to medical abortions as well, and the ease with which a woman gets the abortion pill will depend on where she lives.

For example:

Forty-three states have laws saying only doctors can perform abortions.
Four states make it a crime to perform an abortion without an in-person counseling session and a waiting period first.
Fourteen states require abortion providers to upgrade offices and facilities, in some cases building entire operating rooms.

"So in 14 states, if you're a family practice doctor that thinks, 'Wow, I can offer options to women so they don't have to travel 200 miles,' that doctor doesn't realize that now he is in the labyrinth of abortion laws," Benshoof says.

The Abortion Battle Continues

Abortion rights supporters say Mifeprex will make abortions easier and much less risky, but that debate is far from over, with the drug's medical safety still questioned, and abortion rights opponents promising tough new laws.

Even if state laws are appealed, their existence means the abortion pill will not incite the revolution both sides of the debate predicted.

"Abortion is majorly contentious and majorly divisive in America today. The availability of this medication does not change that political fight," says Dr. Wendy Chavkin, a professor of Public Health at ColumbiUniversity.

In addition to state laws, some members of Congress are also promising new federal restrictions of the abortion pill, meaning the legal wrangling over this new option for women may be just beginning.