Earlier this month, Harvard students learned that they can now receive the abortion drug RU-486 through a referral from University Health Services (UHS). The availability of RU-486 to Harvard students is a step in the right direction towards the greater availability of the drug. However, we urge UHS to rethink its decision not to dispense the pill in Holyoke Center.

According to UHS Director David S. Rosenthal '59, UHS has no plans now or in the future to distribute RU-486 in Holyoke Center. As a result, under the current arrangements, women seeking RU-486 must be referred by UHS either to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston or to the Planned Parenthood center in Brighton, the procedure currently followed by students seeking a surgical abortion.

The need for these referrals undermines the major advantage of the pill, because it does not allow women to receive RU-486 from their primary-care physician. Such an extremely difficult decision is best handled in the context of a familiar doctor-patient relationship, and the University should encourage any policy that can make such a decision a less painful experience for women.

The benefits of RU-486 lie in its flexibility and privacy, but the restrictions on its distribution limit what the community can gain from the new drug. UHS's decision not to offer the pill at Holyoke Center will require women to make three unnecessary trips into Boston. Students should only have to visit another facility in the rare cases where they a follow-up surgical procedure is required, in which case their primary-care physician could accompany them.

A reversal of Harvard's decision not to offer RU-486 in Holyoke Center would grant students additional privacy and one more avenue through which they can choose to have an abortion.

UHS Made the Right Decision

The decision of UHS to refrain from offering this new and controversial service to its students is a sound one. RU-486 is not just a pill that can be distributed over the counter--rather, it involves several visits to internists for its administration. In the few cases where the pill has been ineffective, the practitioners have had to perform surgical abortion procedures; in others, surgery was needed as a result of heavy bleeding. UHS does not administer abortions on-site, and given the possibility of complications, it is wise to refer students elsewhere.

Furthermore, UHS and Harvard may be unequipped to deal with potentially dangerous demonstrators who might protest a decision to begin offering abortion services. Students should therefore be referred to institutions with experience in this regard, as well as the psychological staff to help women address the emotional trauma that accompanies abortions.

Finally, though UHS currently offers abortion counseling, other facilities may be better equipped to inform students of the implications of the drug and its possible complications and side effects, as well as to strongly underscore alternatives to abortion, such as adoption.

--Jordana R. Lewis '02, Ronaldo Rauseo-Ricupero '04 and Stephen E. Sachs '02