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Abortion Pill Availability Expected to Cause Few Changes in Counseling

When RU-486 was approved by the Food and Drug Adminisration (FDA) this past fall, the national media hailed the new drug as a revolutionary alternative to surgical abortions.

And now, through University Health Services (UHS), Harvard students can opt to have an RU-486 abortion at several Boston-area clinics.

But many campus groups who do pregnancy and crisis counseling for students say they do not expect the new abortion option to significantly alter their counseling methods.

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And RU-486 has arrived at Harvard with little fanfare from pro-choice groups and minimal protest from pro-life organizations.

Instead, leaders of groups like Room 13 and Peer Contraceptive Counselors (PCC) say they foresee the need to educate their members about RU-486 and incorporate the new option into their counseling services.

"We expect a lot of questions about RU-486," says Room 13 Chair Neil R. Brown '01. "So as a peer group we'll need to educate ourselves about it, as well as deal with the normal frustrations that accompany these decisions [surrounding student pregnancies]."

Ashley E. Tessier '02, chair of PCC, says the group will work to educate students about how RU-486 works in a woman's body and the necessary medical care surrounding a RU-486 abortion--which includes at least three doctor visits, heavy bleeding and cramping, and in 5 percent of cases, a possible surgical procedure to complete the abortion.

"The process will become a topic we are trained on, and educate about in outreaches," she says.

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