FDA Clears Nonsurgical Abortion Method

A nonsurgical way to end an early pregnancy with two drugs has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The method can only be used during the first seven weeks of pregnancy.

To use this procedure in the United States, a woman must make three visits to a doctor's office or clinic over a two-week period, where she receives counseling and a medication guide and signs a statement of compliance. She must also agree to have a surgical abortion if the drugs do not succeed. She then takes the drug mifepristone (RU-486), a progesterone-blocking agent. Within 36-48 hours after this, she takes a second drug, misoprostol, which contracts the uterus, expelling the fetal tissue. Two weeks later, she returns to the doctor or clinic to ensure she is no longer pregnant and that all fetal tissue has been expelled.

Side effects of the method include abdominal pain, bleeding, and nausea, which can last around nine to 16 days. About 1% of women have severe bleeding and may require a blood transfusion. According to the marketer, in about 5% of cases, the abortion is incomplete, in which case a woman must have a surgical abortion to empty the fetal tissue out of her uterus. In about 1% of women, the drugs fail completely so that the women remain pregnant.

This method of terminating pregnancy has been used in Europe for more than a decade. Since 1988, 14 countries in Europe have approved it.