State Medical Group Urges Tests of French Abortion Pill, RU-486

Delegates to the California Medical Assn. convention here on Monday approved a resolution supporting the research and testing of a controversial pill that can induce abortions.

Doctors who led the drive contended that the vote is a first step by the nation’s doctors to counter political pressure by the anti-abortion lobby and persuade the Food and Drug Administration to study the drug.

The drug, called RU-486 or mifepristone, was developed in 1986 by a French firm, Roussel-Uclaf, and has been used for several years in France. But Edward Norton, a spokesman for the drug manufacturer’s U.S. subsidiary, Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Somerville, N.J., said the firm has no plans to make or market RU-486 in the United States.

“We’ve been petitioned, we’ve been yelled at and we’ve been telephoned by everybody from right-to-lifers in the north, south, east and west and pro-choicers in the north, south, east and west,” Norton said. “But our formal position hasn’t changed in two years, and I don’t expect it to change in light of this decision.”