A Private Matter: RU 486 and the Abortion Crisis

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Prometheus Books, 1995 - Medical - 254 pages
An early pioneer of abortion rights recounts the struggle over a pill that could almost completely remove the matter from the public sphere. Lader (Politics, Power, and the Church, 1987, etc.), one of the early founders of the National Abortion Rights Action League, gives a concise history of the abortion rights movement over the last 30 years and explains how RU-486, ''the abortion pill,'' fits into it. He narrates the growth of grassroots support for the repeal of abortion laws, the success of those efforts, and the challenges from religious extremists-which have culminated in the state of siege in which many family-planning clinics find themselves today. He also chronicles French scientists' discovery of a safe oral abortifacient and the attempt of abortion-rights activists, including himself, to bring it to the US-efforts that included smuggling in a Chinese copy of the pill. RU-486 remains unavailable in this country, due to government inaction and the religious rights' insistence on boycotting any participating company.

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Contents

Foreword Eleanor Smeal
7
Causes and Effects in Abortion Rights
9
The Sanger Factor
21
Copyright

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