The Story of Abortion Pills and How They Work

The health minister was angry. The abortion pill was approved by Claude's department. A world first. The board of the pharmaceutical firm that made the pill voted 16 to 4 to withdraw it from the market. Some company executives were against the drug.

vin summoned Roussel Uclaf's vice-chair to his office. The French government had the power to transfer the patent to another company if distribution didn't resume. Roussel Uclaf retreated. In a television interview, vin later pronounced: "From the moment government approval for the drug was granted, it became the moral property of women, not just the property of the drug company."

The abortion pill arrived in the world because of that. Mifepristone is used in combination with another drug, and they are more than 95 percent effective at ending a pregnancy when taken during the first 50 days. Maternal immune system and the lining of the uterus are affected by the hormones progesterone and misoprostol.

In the 34 years since it was introduced in France, more than 60 countries have approved it, including the US in 2000 and the UK in 1991. Mifepristone is subject to rules in most places.

There is no guarantee of access to these pills. The landmark 1973 US Supreme Court case that confirmed a woman's right to abortion appears likely to be overturned. If it's true, the use of abortion drugs could be restricted or banned in some US states.

The subject of abortion technology ends up being the subject of moral debate, according to Anna Glasier, a professor at the University of Edinburgh who worked with the Population Council during the 1990s.

She says that the intervention is a great story and that there are many twists in the history. In 2000, Andr Ulmann described how he began giving the drug to gynecologists before it was approved in France.

The method was already used in many places before the official launch, and the staffs of more than 200 of the 800 authorized abortion centers in France were trained by the end of 1988.

The CEO of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service charity says that the emergence of pills that could induce an abortion was revolutionary. Many people don't know that abortion pills are different from emergency contraception. According to medical professionals and health experts who spoke to WIRED, these drugs are extremely safe and have made the process of self-terminating a pregnancy much safer than it used to be.

Murphy says that pregnant people take a dose of Mifepristone and then take a dose of Misoprostol. The method has been approved for use in the US and the UK within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The drugs will cause bleeding as the baby is expelled. The time since conception can affect the amount of bleeding. There are a lot of side effects. Allergic reactions and more severe side effects are very rare.