NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Jan. 29, 2001

So far, pro-abortion and anti-abortion groups say, Yale University is the only college to publicly promise to provide the drug.

Colleges and universities, loathe to rankle prospective donors, have warily greeted RU-486, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September and first released on the market in November. Unlike pregnancy-prevention drugs like birth-control or morning-after pills, mifepristone, as RU-486 is clinically called, is a pregnancy-terminating drug.

"We understand this may be a controversial decision,'' said Gila Reinstein, a spokeswoman for Yale, which already provides students with surgical abortions. "But this is our decision. We are going to provide the full complement of OB-GYN services to our students.''

The controversial abortion pill, available for more than a decade and used by a half million women in Europe, had been mired in politics and clinical trials for much of the past decade in the United States. And although the FDA approved it last year, the drug's future is anything but assured. Just last week, citing "safety concerns,'' Tommy Thompson, President Bush's recently confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services, vowed to launch a review of the drug.

Anti-abortion groups have fought the drug and are fighting its distribution on college campuses because they believe it makes it easier for women to use abortion as a means of contraception. They also charge it's unfair for a college or university to require its students to pay, through student fees, for a service they might find morally repugnant.

"We oppose this chemical assault weapon simply because it takes the life of an innocent pre-born person,'' said Scott Weinberg, a spokesman for the American Life League, a Washington-based anti-abortion group that surveyed about 40 top colleges throughout the country and found none but Yale willing to distribute RU-486. "This is not something that should be on college campuses, where respect for life should be highest.''

For proponents of abortion rights, the failure to provide RU-486 reeks of politics. They see the drug as the first major innovation to reduce the stigma of invasive surgical procedures and a discreet method of ending unwanted pregnancies. The ease of prescribing pills, they believe, makes it more difficult for abortion opponents to intimidate doctors, who, with RU-486, can now administer abortions outside frequently picketed clinics.

"Unfortunately, I believe politics is definitely a factor in why colleges are backing away from RU-486,'' said Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the National Abortion Federation, a pro-choice advocacy group in Washington. "There has been a deliberate campaign to spread misinformation and confusion. But I think once more people know about the drug, there will be more demand and more schools will make it available.''

Many colleges have justified not providing RU-486 by claiming they don't have the resources to meet FDA guidelines for administering the drug, such as accurately determining the date a pregnancy occurred. In their defense, they cite a lack of expensive ultrasound equipment, the dearth of surgical expertise to treat patients with complications, and the absence of emergency facilities open 24 hours a day.

"It requires some monitoring and some level of expertise that is just not available at Brown,'' said Laura Freid, executive vice president for public affairs at Brown University, echoing comments from health officials at schools ranging from Princeton to the University of Connecticut.

But proponents of the abortion pill such as Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation say those arguments don't hold up. The FDA doesn't require doctors prescribing RU-486 to have surgeons on hand or ultrasound machines. They say doctors only have to make sure the equipment and help is available elsewhere.

Seeking a suitable middle ground, officials at Harvard's health services department say the school will cover part of the costs students bear if an off-campus doctor prescribes them RU-486. But as they already do with surgical abortions, if any student complains, Harvard promises to refund the portion of their health services fees to pay for other students' abortions.

"Because it's such a controversial issue, we found this was the best way of resolving it,'' said David Rosenthal, director of Harvard's health services department.

At the least, anti-abortion students say, Yale should compensate them for paying for other students' abortions. Yale's Pro-Life League has already begun hanging signs around campus and planning protests.

And the issue has incited a flurry of bitter letters in the campus's student newspaper.

"There are few things Yale could possibly ask us to pay for that would be worse,'' wrote Eve Tushet, a co-founder of the Yale Pro-Life League, in the Yale Daily News. "This is not like saying, `I'm not an athlete, so why should I pay for sports medicine?' It is not even like saying, `I think eating meat is wrong, so why should I have to pay for the dining halls?' ''

But Yale officials and members of the campus's Reproductive Rights Action League argue that the point of an insurance system is for the community to alleviate costs that would otherwise burden individuals.

"The pill has overwhelmingly been proven to be safe,'' said Caroline Barber, president of Yale's pro-abortion student group. "I think the logic that some students shouldn't have to pay for abortion services is fundamentally flawed. It's one of the services provided. You can go through Yale and never use any of the services, but that shouldn't make you exempt from paying the health fees.''

c.2001 The Boston Globe