
ABORTION
Abortion is only one facet of women's reproductive health.
Too often abortion takes the center stage in the debate concerning women,
and the options they should have in seeking health care.
Reproductive health care should be safe and affordable for all women,
and every person should seek to ensure so.
It is vital that women receive information as well as medical care in a safe
and non-threatening enviornment,
where they will be able to make their own choices regarding their reproductive health.
Since its approval in 1988 in France, mifepristone has become a safe
and effective alternative to surgical abortion.
Between 1994 and 1995 2,121 women in the United States participated
in clinical trials of mifepristone,
which found the drug to be effective in preventing 92% of pregnancies.
If approved, Mifepristone may offer women more privacy in the abortion decision, along with greater personal control over the process of pregnancy termination.
Despite its proven medical effectiveness, the drug has yet to become approved for use in the United States.
Although in 1996 the FDA issued a letter for mifepristone finding it safe and effective, it required the manufacturer to provide further manufacturing and labeling information before final approval.
Although a manufacturer had been found to manufacture and distribute the drug in the United States the arrangement fell throuh, and in 1997 the manufacturer backed out.
This coupled with anti-abortion legislators attaching amendments to federal spending bills which would prevent the FDA from spending federal funds on the testing and development of drugs to induce abortions, has further delayed the introduction mifepristone in the United States.
A women's right to choose has become severly dependent upon the state in which she lives. Many states because of their bias concerning abortion, place unneeded restrictions on women seeking abortions.
For instance these states subject women to waiting periods, parental notification requirements and out-of-pocket payment for services although they would qualify for state-sponsored health care.
These hurdles placed by states are merely an attempt to make abortions so difficult and inconvient to obtain that they will be illegal by de facto.
"GOD IS THE ONE WHO GIVES US OUR LIVES, AND HE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM US...."