Dispense RU-486 on Campus

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 at the Holyoke Center.

According to UHS Director David S. Rosenthal ’59, UHS has no plans now or in the future to distribute RU-486 at the 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.

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.

—Feb. 23, 2001

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