Abortion Pill Found to Be Safe, Effective in Largest Study Yet

In findings hailed as the most definitive evidence yet that the French “abortion pill” is safe and effective, researchers Wednesday released the results of the largest study to date of the controversial drug.

The drug RU 486 produced a 96% success rate among 2,115 women in France without causing side effects such as pain or profuse bleeding more frequently than conventional abortions.

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, confirms earlier smaller studies. It was conducted by the French pharmaceutical company Roussel Uclaf, which developed the drug but only sells it in France, in part because of fierce opposition from anti-abortion groups.

Dr. Sheldon Segal of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York welcomed the report in an accompanying editorial as “very important--the definitive study we’ve been waiting for.”

The research “should give Roussel Uclaf assurances about the drug’s safety that they need in order to introduce it into other countries,” Segal said.

A company spokesman in Paris called the study “definitive” and said the firm now believes the drug’s safety is not in question. The drug works by blocking the hormone progesterone, causing a fertilized egg to be dispelled.

The company spokesman added, however, that the firm is committed to a lengthy and extensive testing program and the new study alone will not hasten the drug’s introduction into the United States or other parts of Europe such as Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries, where other tests are under way.

Dr. Louise Tyrer of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said the study “confirms RU 486 as a major breakthrough--the most major development for women since the invention of the birth control pill.”

However, Richard Glasow, vice president of the National Right-to-Life Committee, said the study “doesn’t offer any new information about the drug as far as we’re concerned.”