RU-486, more commonly known as the abortion pill, has both fierce support and opposition. After an American teenager died in Sept. 2003 from complications after taking the pill, the fight has been reignited.

According to its Web site, Planned Parenthood believes the abortion pill to be "a safe, effective, acceptable option for women seeking abortion during the first several weeks of pregnancy."

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., is "the world's largest and most trusted voluntary reproductive health care organization. Founded by Margaret Sanger in 1916 as America's first birth control clinic, Planned Parenthood believes in everyone's right to choose when or whether to have a child, that every child should be wanted and loved, and that women should be in charge of their own destinies." For some, including Representative Rick Renzi (R-Az), abortion is never an acceptable option.

"I don't believe in abortion -- in the killing and flushing of our babies," Renzi said. "Therefore, I don't believe in any methods that can increase or expedite the termination of a pregnancy."

The abortion pill was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administra-tion (FDA) in September 2000. RU-486 involves two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, which are chemical forms of abortion that can be administered within 49 days of conception. The count begins on the day after the woman had her last period.

The FDA-approved treatment regimen involves at least three visits to a doctor's office or clinic. The first visit is for counseling and medication guidance to explain how to take the drug, who should avoid taking it and what side effects can occur. A woman could then, while in the doctor's office, take 600 milligrams (three 200-milligram pills) of mifepristone. The mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which prepares the lining of the uterus for a fertilized egg and helps maintain pregnancy.

After two days, the woman returns to the doctor's office to determine if she is still pregnant. If she is, she then takes 400 micrograms (two 200-microgram pills) of misoprostol while in the doctor's office. This drug, previously approved by the FDA to treat ulcers, causes the uterine muscles to contract and end the pregnancy.

About two weeks after taking the last round of pills, the woman is expected to return to her doctor to find out if the pregnancy has been terminated. The combination of the two drugs have shown, in studies, to successfully end pregnancies in 92 to 95 percent of women, according to the FDA.

Planned Parenthood saw the approval of the drug as an expansion of a woman's options for early abortion. According to the agency's fact sheet on the drug, many of the women who underwent treatment experienced side effects similar to those of a spontaneous miscarriage, including abdominal pain, bleeding and gastrointestinal distress.

Planned Parenthood has also claimed that mifepristone is safer than aspirin.

The abortion pill, though always contested, has come under the microscope once again after Holly Patterson, 18, died in September as a result of taking the pill. According to the Washington Times, Patterson visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hayward, Calif., on Sept. 10, 2003. She was given the first of the two-part regimen at the clinic. She then took the second round of pills three days later at home. She was instructed to take the pill vaginally, although the FDA recommends it be taken orally.

After taking the pill, Patterson experienced such painful cramping and bleeding that she was unable to walk. Her boyfriend took her to the hospital on Sept. 14, where she was given painkillers and sent home.

On Sept. 16, she was back in the hospital and died the next day from a massive infection caused by fragments of the fetus left inside her uterus that caused her to go into septic shock.

Patterson is not the only woman to die from use of the drug since its approval. According to Planned Parenthood, since 1991 only six deaths have been reported in the more than one million women who were treated with the mifepristone.

The controversy surrounding the abortion pill is not only moral, but physical, as well, because the woman carrying the baby is at risk. The blood-thinning medicine used in the treatment can lead to hemorrhaging, Renzi said.

He is a co-sponsor of House Bill 3453, which would withdraw the FDA approval and ban the drug.

The bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Health in November of 2003. Currently, it has 85 co-sponsors, including three of Arizona's representatives.

"The government has an obligation to create laws that are good and just," Renzi said. "Passing legislation that allows this type of a violent and evil approach to human life doesn't represent the goodness of America."

Contact Lindsey Stockton at 428-2560 (ext. 248) or e-mail her at lindsey@eacourier.com.