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From: pmd@cbscc.UUCP (Paul Dubuc)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: The "day-after" pill
Message-ID: <4315@cbscc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 14:55:21 EST
Article-I.D.: cbscc.4315
Posted: Mon Dec 10 14:55:21 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 04:28:26 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories , Columbus
Lines: 34


I wanted to put Betsy Perry's question on the "day-after" pill
in a separate article:

}In an unrelated topic:  how do the various pro-life people out there
}feel about the (currently-tested) "day-after" pill which causes
}a 2-week abortion?  (that is, it is taken the day after a missed period.)
}As an admittedly biased observer, I'm much less worried about a 2-week 
}fetus than about a 5-month fetus.

My own position is that it is more consisent to protect human life from
conception.  So I would throw out the use of such a pill.  I think the
pill contains prostaglandin (sp?) which induces uterine contractions causing
abortion.  This is not a drug to take lightly from the woman's standpoint.
If it is used as regular birth control it could have serious side effects.

Aside from the effects on the fetus, I could see another dilemma arising
from the availability of such a pill.  It would make it possible to give
an abortion to a woman without her consent, just by putting it in her
food or water.  I can just see the Chinese using it to control their
population, or Russia using it to subdue Afganistan.  Have the pill's
developers thought about this?

I also wonder what's going to happen to the abortion industry when it
becomes widely available.  Can't say I care, but I can just see
clinics lobbying for restrictions on its use.

The Upjohn company has admitted that it has been developing this pill
for some years.  Right to Life has suggested boycotting their products
to those who object.  They put out a list of alternate brands of their
major products.
-- 

Paul Dubuc	cbscc!pmd