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"Of the first fifty thousand cases in France, the [only] two complications involved women thirty-five and thirty-eight years old, one a heavy smoker, the other under severe psychological stress. Both women recovered completely." ¹⁵ Then, in 1991, a prostaglandin injected in conjunction with RU 486 was responsible for the "heart-attack death of a 31-year-old French mother of 11, a longtime smoker." ¹ Doctors believe all three incidences were "due to prostaglandin, and they now avoid giving the pill to older patients who have a predisposition to cardiovascular risks." ¹⁵

Dr. Richard Glasow, education director of the National Right to Life Committee, claims that "our predictions of danger are being borne out." To which Steve Heilig, the public health consultant who drafted the American Medical Association's resolution in favor of wider testing of RU 486, responds that one death after more than 60,000 uses makes the drug "safer than anything else you can point to, including childbirth."⁵

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