Group to Push for U.S. Testing of Abortion Pill : Health care: New coalition will urge action on French drug RU-486, saying it may have other uses. Anti-abortion activists have persuaded company to halt shipments to researchers.

At least two dozen local organizations crossing religious and political lines will announce the formation of a Los Angeles-based coalition today to support U.S. research on RU-486, the so-called French abortion pill.

Leaders of the Los Angeles Coalition for RU-486 said the major goal of the group is to support medical testing on RU-486 for its potential to induce early, safe abortions as well as treat several serious medical disorders. The group will hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference at the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. headquarters.

RU-486, manufactured by the French company Roussel-Uclaf, is widely used in France as an abortion pill and is considered there to be safer than surgical abortion. U.S. medical researchers have expressed interest in the drug, a steroid, for its potential to treat a form of breast cancer, AIDS and Cushing’s syndrome, an endocrine disorder.

Fierce opposition to the drug by anti-abortion groups helped persuade Roussel-Uclaf to stop shipments last year of the drug to U.S. researchers. The National Institutes of Health and USC Medical Center were conducting research before shipments stopped.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued an import alert, barring individuals from bringing the drug into the country for personal use.

Dr. Carol R. Kurz, co-chairwoman of the coalition and a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist in Woodland Hills, said Roussel-Uclaf has been intimidated by a minority of Americans who express concern over the drug.

“The company has gotten so many letters and threats from the anti-choice movement,” she said. “We need to reverse that and show that the majority want RU-486 brought into the country for basic research. It’s outrageous that you can’t even test it.”

The coalition spans political, religious and medical interests and includes the American Jewish Congress Pacific Southwest Region, Republicans for Choice, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Fund for the Feminist Majority, Planned Parenthood, the Los Angeles County Medical Assn., Catholics for Free Choice, Comision Feminil de Los Angeles, and Asians Pacific for Choice.

Coalition leaders said they are concerned over political interference with traditional drug testing procedures.

“People who support RU-486 do not necessarily have to be pro-choice,” said Carol Rowen, co-chairwoman of the coalition and a representative of Republicans for Choice. “What they have to do is take a hard look at what is happening with medical research. We’re not talking about putting the pill on the market tomorrow morning. We want to know if it has an effect on cancer or AIDS and other horrendous diseases. It’s not just the abortion pill.”

Local Right to Life League spokeswoman Susan Carpenter-McMillan said that abortion is the issue.

“I think it’s going to be the next abortion battleground,” she said. “I anticipate it to be a major battle. The anti-life movement is hellbent on getting this into the country.

“They have now seen that they will not be able to get RU-486 in as an (abortion drug). Since they have realized they are not going to get this into the country this way, they say there are other uses for it.”

Carpenter-McMillan said her organization would support medical testing of the drug only on the basis of clear scientific evidence of its potential benefits.

“They are saying it’s going to be good for these other things, but I have seen no scientific proof,” she said.

Rowen said the coalition, which is seeking to expand statewide, will announce its support of two bills linked to RU-486 introduced by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-South San Francisco).

One is a resolution asking Congress and President Bush to revoke the import alert on the drug, to encourage scientists to do research on it, and to choose California as a research site. The measure is aimed at influencing Roussel-Uclaf to resume drug shipments to the United States.

The other bill introduced by Speier calls for greater attention to female and minority health issues and makes specific reference to the potential benefits of RU-486 to promote women’s health.

Nationwide, grass-roots efforts to bring the drug into the country are jelling, said Peg Yorkin, chairwoman of Fund for the Feminist Majority.

In May, the New Hampshire Legislature adopted a resolution offering the state as a clinical testing site for RU-486. New York Mayor David N. Dinkins has initiated a movement to persuade Bush to lift the import alert on the drug and has urged other mayors to join in the effort.

Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced a bill that would rescind the import alert. The American Medical Assn. has endorsed testing and possible use of RU-486.

“I think there will be a groundswell,” Yorkin said. “If we get enough states to say, ‘Yes, we will have RU-486 tested in this state,’ it tells Roussel-Uclaf something.”

The formation of the coalition is significant, Speier said, “because there has almost been a gag order on RU-486, not just in terms of research and studies, but in terms of discussion. It’s important for all of us to get bullish that this drug has potential benefits for the female population that run the gamut from abortion to breast cancer.

“The moral minority would key in on this as an abortion pill. But it has many other uses, and to curtail its development is just wrong. It abridges everyone’s rights.”