Change reduces abortion-pill infections

BOSTON, July 9 (UPI) -- Changing the way women take abortion pill RU-486 cut the number of serious infections tied to the drug by more than half, a U.S. study published Thursday said.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that taking the second of two abortion-inducing drugs by mouth rather than vaginally, reduced the number of reported deaths from the pill to zero and decreased the number of serious infections to 0.06 per 1,000 from about 1 per 1,000.

Taking the pill vaginally has been tied to seven women's deaths, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The abortion pill is actually two drugs delivered in stages. Women first swallow a dose of mifepristone, which starts the abortion. Two or three days later, usually in their own home, women take a second pill called misoprostol to induce contractions and complete the process.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in 2000, the agency recommended that women swallow the second pill, as women taking the drug in Europe typically do.

But Planned Parenthood and other U.S. clinics had women insert misoprostol vaginally, based on studies suggesting that technique caused contractions to start faster and last longer.

Planned Parenthood switched to the European method in March 2006, having women place the second drug between their cheek and gums and letting it dissolve.

This method retains the drug's effectiveness, some researchers say, and significantly reduces the rate of infection, the latest study found.

The study, by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Population Council's Reproductive Health Program, looked at nearly 250,000 medical abortions performed between January 2005 and June 2008.