“Inducing a Miscarriage”: Women-Centered Perspectives on RU 486/Prostaglandin as an Early Abortion Method

Abstract

In countries where abortion is performed safely in medical settings, the vast majority of up to several generations of women have come to identify early abortion as a surgical experience—whether on an inpatient or outpatient basis, whether with local or general anesthetic or whether in a freestanding clinic or a hospital.In this context, the introduction of RU 486 with prostaglandin (RU 486/PG) as an alternative method of early abortion will once more alter women's experience of abortion.The first part of this paper explores the similarities and differences between an abortion with RU 486/PG and vacuum aspiration from a women-centered perspective. This comparison is limited by the fact that only women in France have so far had access to both methods, along with those who have participated in clinical trials, and that very few in-depth women's experiences and reactions to this method have been published.