WaPo: 'Miffy' helps make abortion a private affair

[Tesha]

Source: Washington Post

'Miffy' helps make abortion a private affair

RU-486 is quietly changing the way pregnancy is ended

Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade
decision, a pill that has largely faded from the rancorous public
debate over abortion has slowly and quietly begun to transform the
experience of ending a pregnancy in the United States.

On the market since 2000, the French abortion pill RU-486 has become
an increasingly common alternative, making abortion less clinical and
more private. At a time when the overall number of abortions has been
steadily declining, a new survey reported that RU-486-induced abortions
have been rising by 22 percent a year and now account for 14 percent
of the total - and more than 1 in 5 of early abortions performed by
the ninth week of pregnancy.

The pill, often called "miffy" after its chemical name, mifepristone,
and brand name, Mifeprex, also has helped slow the decline in abortion
providers, as more physicians who previously did not perform the procedure
discreetly start to prescribe the pill.

"The impact and the promise is huge," said Beth Jordan, medical director
of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. "It's going a
long way toward normalizing abortion."

<more>

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/22/MNQVUJ7H9.DTL

[Demeter]

1. "Normalizing?" What a Strange and Unfortunate Turn of Phrase

How about "removing from contention and public shame?" How about "preserving both a woman's privacy, her rights, and her budget?"

How about anything that doesn't smack of judgmentalism?

[rodeodance]

2. You are right in your translation--but the translation words are hot words.

[dkf]

3. Well that word is a red cape to fundie bulls.

Bet this article will be referenced often. Yuck.

Why not be a little discrete people. Thank you.

[rodeodance]

4. It helps keep it private--which is so important.

[Tesha]

5. Kicking for the lunchtime crowd...

[Tesha]

7. And for the evening...

[LiberalFighter]

6. Fewer abortions because of abstinence training HAH

Now we have the truth!

I wonder how many self-righteous scumbags use RU-486 for themselves.


If I were a woman and my choice is not having the pregnancy go full term I would choose RU-486 over an abortion. Cost less in all aspects, not as messy, and possibly less psychological.

[bunkerbuster1]

8. Eat RU-486, anti-choicers!

I probably shouldn't admit it, but when I read stories like this, I can only imagine how crazy it must drive the loony right.

[momster]

9. Harder to Protest

when you don't know which doctor may be prescribing RU-486 or for what. It does have a few other uses. It certainly seems as if the just-until-they're-born crowd are less visible now, as though the helium is slowly leaking from their looney balloons. Notice that the sole voice for the anti-women's-rights crowd is, in fact, another Randall. What, Randall Terry was busy looking for a real job?

[Tesha]

10. That's the real problem that the Religious Wrong has with RU-486. (NT)