No outsiders allowed ... and that includes the government

Rat poison, Lysol, ergot, bleach—oh, the historical list of desperate measures is long.

On Their Own Terms

American women have found a new way to keep abortion a personal and private responsibility. It comes with a glass of water.

Anna Quindlen
NEWSWEEK

This is how it works: first, one pill in the doctor's office or at the clinic, and, a day or two later, a second set of pills at home. Then the waiting, with a husband or a girlfriend, watching television or reading a book, feeling sad or relieved or numb or frightened. Cramping, bleeding, pain and finally the end of a pregnancy.

This is not a best-case scenario. Best case is that contraception is always successful and pregnancies are always welcome. But that's not always how things turn out. And between the clinic demonstrations, the political discussions and the imprecations from the pulpit, too many American women have come to feel that their pelvis is public property. Slowly, quietly, a new abortion method has become part of the landscape, and it's no accident that those women who have chosen it often cite reclaiming privacy and control as the reason.

RU-486 was originally called the French abortion pill, after the country of its genesis, and many activists spoke of it as the answer to the rancorous, sometimes violent atmosphere that for so long had surrounded legal abortion. Clinics were being assailed by those armed with picket signs and, sometimes, guns; in part because of that, fewer physicians were training to perform surgical abortions. Medication abortions were said to be the answer to both problems.

(More here.)