Good Morning America is reporting that even after the “abortion pill” RU-486 made it possible for all doctors to provide early abortions, access to abortions has not improved as dramatically as women had hoped.

RU-486, also called mifepristone, was approved by the FDA in 2000 for early pregnancy termination, it was expected to improve access to early abortion because pregnancies could be terminated more privately, within a few days after conception, without surgery, and with only a prescription for the medication from a woman’s personal physician, no matter where the woman lived.

New research from across the U.S. shows, however, that early visions of broader geographic access to abortions have not been fulfilled.

In 2005, out of a total of 3,141 counties in the U.S., RU-486 prescriptions were written in only 307 (10 percent). Of the 62 million girls and women of childbearing age, an estimated 36 million (58 percent) lived in a county with an RU-486 provider.

These results, the researchers conclude, indicate that RU-486 “has not brought a major improvement in the geographic availability of abortion.”

SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology, September 2009.

ForWomenOnline.com