French abortion pill

The FDA was set to approve the first medication specifically designed for terminating a pregnancy: The “French abortion pill,” as it was called—the name, a nod to the drug’s origins, also happened to convey a whiff of the laissez-faire—was about to come to America.

After years of controversy, RU-486, the so-called French abortion pill, is finally being delivered to U.S. doctors this week after approval in September by the FDA.

But a Planned Parenthood spokesman insists the Beacon Street clinic had been receiving more threats than usual over the past month -- perhaps because it is one of 20 facilities around the country testing RU-486, the so-called French abortion pill.

The others have been scared off by the fear of costly lawsuits like the one that drove the maker of the Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine device, into bankruptcy, and by public controversy such as that surrounding RU-486, the French "abortion pill."

One development could make abortion so much simpler that pro-life activists are desperately fighting it: the French "abortion pill," called RU 486.