Italy: ‘Abortion pill’ approved for use

The sale of RU486 has been given final approval in Italy, despite protests from the Vatican and the government in the Catholic country, BBC News Online reports.

Unlike in other European countries, the ‘abortion pill’, also known as mifepristone, will be administered solely in hospitals.

The drug was originally approved by the country’s pharmaceuticals agency in late July, but the move prompted a parliamentary inquiry.

Italy was is one of the last European states to make it available.

According to the country’s pharmaceutical agency, the pill must only be administered in a hospital environment and must be taken within seven weeks of conception. Women will be required to remain in hospital until the drug has taken full effect.

‘The debate is not yet over,’ Senator Donatella Poretti told Agence France Presse. ‘From tomorrow, we have to ask why Italian women [prescribed the drug] will be required to stay in hospital.’

The introduction of the drug had sparked outrage from the Vatican. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, had threatened women who used it, doctors who prescribed it and those who encouraged its use with excommunication.

Italian law permits surgical abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and then until the 24th week only if the fetus has a genetic deficiency or to preserve the mother’s health.

Abortion pill gets final approval in Italy. BBC News Online, 10 December 2009

Also read:

Italy: Government blocks ‘abortion pill’. Abortion Review, 30 November 2009