Abortion Pill Effective, Dutch Scientists Claim
An experimental drug being tested as an abortion pill appears to offer a safe and effective alternative to surgically terminating early pregnancies, Dutch researchers reported Wednesday.
The drug, epostane, was found to be 84% effective for ending the pregnancies of 50 women who took it five to eight weeks into their pregnancies in a new study, the largest of its kind, the researchers said.
“We conclude that epostane taken orally is an effective and safe method for the noninvasive termination of undesired early pregnancy,” said the researchers from Vrije University in Amsterdam.
“Epostane should receive further study as a noninvasive alternative to dilation and curettage for the termination of unwanted early pregnancy,” they wrote in a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The drug works by blocking an enzyme known as 3-HSD, which is necessary for the conversion of the hormone progesterone into a useable form. Progesterone is necessary to maintain a pregnancy in the womb.
A similar drug approved last week for use in France, known as RU 486, blocks the action of progesterone. Studies of RU 486 have found it to be about as effective as the new study found epostane to be.
Dr. Louise Tyrer of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said such drugs could offer women a cheaper, more convenient and private way to have an abortion.
But she was pessimistic they would become available in the United States because of opposition from anti-abortionists and the cost of getting new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
