Doctors Back Importing of French Abortion Pill

The California Medical Assn. voted Monday to support the importing of a French abortion pill so scientists can study its usefulness for inducing abortion and treating cancer and other diseases.

The resolution inviting French drug company Roussel-Uclaf to ship the drug RU 486 into the United States for research purposes was approved during a unanimous voice vote by the CMA’s 450-member House of Delegates, spokesman Paul Moreno said.

Two years ago, the company stopped providing the drug to U.S researchers after abortion opponents threatened to boycott Roussel-Uclaf’s other drugs, which include a wide variety of heart medications and other prescriptions.

“The manufacturer has been intimidated by pro-life groups,” Moreno said.

When combined with another hormone, RU 486 causes abortion by inducing miscarriage. It also may be useful in treating breast cancer, prostate enlargement and cancer, and a hormone disorder called Cushings’ disease, said Dr. Debra Judelson, a Beverly Hills cardiologist-internist who sponsored the resolution.

“We want it tested for these and other potential uses,” Judelson said. “We’re incapable of studying the drug without having the drug.”

Roussel-Uclaf said that if U.S. doctors and researchers want RU 486, they should formally invite the company to ship it into the United States, she said. The resolution does exactly that, and also calls for elected representatives and health officials to be informed that the CMA supports RU 486 imports, Judelson said.

The CMA voted two years ago to support having the drug legally available in the United States. Judelson said there is now no federal or state law or policy to prevent RU 486 from being imported.

In other actions, the House of Delegates voted to:

* Work to obtain more government funding so that California public health officials will have enough money to notify people when their lovers or injectable drug abusers with whom they shared needles are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. It was approved by a lopsided voice vote, Moreno said.

* Reject resolutions that would have required mandatory AIDS testing for newborns, expectant mothers and people admitted to hospitals.

* Study the feasibility of changing existing blood-banking methods to increase the use of “autologous” or self-donated blood. People about to undergo surgery often donate their own blood ahead of time for use during the operation. But if they don’t need it all, it often is discarded.

The resolution is aimed at making such unused blood available to other needy surgical patients after it is screened to make sure it doesn’t contain viruses that cause AIDS, hepatitis or other diseases.

The House of Delegates is the policy-making body for the 38,000-member CMA, whose annual session and scientific assembly run through Wednesday at the Disneyland Hotel.