PUBLIC DESERVES FULL HEARINGS ON RU-486

Issues relating to abortion, test tube babies and the meaning of human life are once again in the news. They remain just as vexing now as they ever have been.

The first of these to capture recent attention was the long-awaited approval of the controversial abortion pill, RU-486, by President Clinton's Food and Drug Administration. The administration of former President George Bush had banned importation of RU-486 in 1989. The pill, known chemically as mifepristone and by the brand name Mifeprex, will be available to doctors within a month.

The long-awaited approval allows American women an early-abortion method already used in France, Britain, China and 10 other countries, some for more than a decade.

The pill operates by blocking a hormone vital to sustaining pregnancy. It works, we are told, only during the first seven weeks of pregnancy when an embryo is only about one-fifth of an inch long. Two days after taking RU-486, women take a second drug that causes cramping and bleeding as the embryo is expelled, similar to a miscarriage.

"For those who choose to have an early termination of pregnancy, this is a reasonable medical alternative," said FDA Commissioner Jane Henney, who approved RU-486 based on studies that found it 92 to 95 percent effective in causing abortion.

Pro-lifers and others differ. "Never before has the FDA approved a drug intended to kill people," said U.S. Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Coburn is a physician and has introduced legislation that will require that only OB-GYN surgeons would be able to prescribe the drug. Vice President Al Gore hailed the FDA's action, while Texas Gov. George W. Bush described the decision as "wrong" but said he would lack the power, as president, to reverse it.

If physicians such as Representative Coburn have concerns, then we see the need for public hearings, at the very least. Congress and the state legislatures should convene these hearings and bring medical experts before them for testimony. Let's get all the facts before the public.