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"It's more difficult to make the case that this is a developing baby if you don't have pictures of the fetus," explains Glasow. "If you can show people fingers and toes, it's dynamite." Photographs of the menstrual blood that results from the use of RU 486 could hardly have the same effect. ¹⁰

Of course, no one knows about any one-in-a-million side effects that might occur, simply because a million women haven't tried it yet. "But the research looks promising enough that a group of doctors in California is poised to test the drug the moment it becomes available, and their efforts have been widely supported by the California Medical Association and several state politicians." ⁹

If RU 486 is not approved for testing in the U.S. fairly quickly, it is widely believed that a black market for the drug will inevitably develop. As Dr. Sharon Camp, vice president of the Population Crisis Committee, notes, "If tons of cocaine can be shipped across the nation's borders despite the best efforts of thousands of law enforcement agents, how can a small pill like RU 486 be kept out?" ⁴

Unfortunately, this might be the biggest possible tragedy. In France, Roussel-Uclaf has kept such tight control over the pills that every single one released to a hospital or clinic is numbered. Every pill has to be "accounted for in official records, listing the name and address of each patient undergoing abortion. A doctor [has] to certify that the pill [is] administered on the spot." ¹⁵

This process, among other things, ensures that every person receiving RU 486 has had a physical exam to eliminate the possibility of ectopic pregnancy — the one situation in which RU 486 is not effective and even a potential source of complications. ²⁰ In a black market, such control would be impossible, and women who were not aware of the danger would be placed at substantial risk.

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