British Use of Abortion Drug RU 486 Grows, Now One-Third of Abortions 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 30, 2006
London, England (LifeNews.com) — A leading abortion business in England reports that British women are using the abortion drug RU 486 at a higher rate and it now accounts for one-third of all abortions it does annually. More than 10,000 women used the dangerous abortion drug last year that has killed 12 women worldwide and injured more than 950 women alone in the U.S.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, a private abortion business which did 32,000 abortions last year, released the new figures.
The abortion business said the number of abortions using mifepristone rose from 3,500 in 2003 to 5,000 in 2004 to more than 10,000 last year.
"Women’s demand for the early medical abortion service is at an all-time high," BPAS chief executive Ann Furedi said. "This trend is a success for BPAS and for the Government’s sexual health strategy."
The company said the demand for the abortion drug has surged following it’s changing its protocols to let women go home after taking the second part of the two-part abortion drug.
The first part of the drug essentially starves the unborn child to death while the second is an ulcer medication that’s misused to cause contractions and induce a miscarriage of the dead baby.
Pro-life groups in the UK condemned the announcement.
Josephine Qunitavalle of the Comment on Reproductive Ethics accused BPAS of "deeply insensitive self-promotion" by "trumpeting" their role in selling the abortion drugs.
"Every rational person has to agree that the ideal for any woman and the health of any nation is fewer, or better still no, abortions," she said.
Meanwhile, Michaela Aston, of LIFE, pointed to problems in the United States showing the drug hurts women.
Some of the hundreds of women in the United States who have had problems with the drug have required emergency surgery for incomplete abortions, needed blood transfusions, or other hospitalization.
