“After a ten-year fight, the “abortion pill” RU486 is finally available in the US. But the pill’s supporters fear theirs

may be a pyrrhic victory, because production of a second pill that has to be taken with RU486 is now under threat. Now that the US Food and

Drug Administration has approved mifepristone, attention has turned to misoprostol, a prostaglandin pill originally

developed to treat gastric ulcers.

Supporters of RU486 told New Scientist that they fear anti-abortion campaigners will target misoprostol supply

because, although it is officially produced to treat stomach ulcers, obstetricians use it to complete the abortion

process started by RU486.” New Scientist