19
Finally, the most telling argument in favor of widespread acceptance of RU 486 is that it would permit abortions earlier in a pregnancy, "starting at four weeks [two weeks fetal age] versus eight with the existing methods, suction or dilation and curettage (D & C)." 20
The reason behind this is that surgical abortion has a "complication rate of four to six percent if done in the first six weeks, when the embryo is small and often missed. Hospitals and clinics, therefore, generally urge women to postpone a vacuum abortion until after eight weeks of pregnancy." 15
This means that under the present system, if for example a woman wanted to be absolutely certain that there would be no opportunity for basic brain activity in the embryo she was aborting, she would have a "window" of only four weeks in which to have the abortion procedure. Also, "a significant advantage of RU 486 is that it encourages women ... to confront their pregnancies and act quickly if they decide on abortion."15
There are a couple of other objections being raised to RU 486, but all, upon examination, prove groundless. Regarding RU 486, Dr. John Willke of the National Right to Life Committee says, "We're going to have a series of seriously deformed babies. The absence of hands, legs, a foot grown out of a knee. It will be the new thalidomide." 20
Dr. Allan Rosenfeld, head of the School of Public Health at Columbia University, says fears about births of deformed infants are "based on fiction. The worst that might happen, even if women took the pill and skipped the prostaglandin, would be that in a small percentage of cases, the pregnancy continues." 20