PRO-LIFE GROUPS ORGANIZE BOYCOTT OF RU-486 COMPANIES WASHINGTON, D.C.-- A coalition of pro-life organizations will be asking adherents to boycott pharmaceutical firms associated with a French abortion pill company that recently handed over rights to the U.S. Population Council to begin testing RU 486 for Food and Drug Administration approval. RU 486, says Dr. Wanda Franz, president of the National Right-to-Life Committee, Inc., "will bring us serial killing by abortion, on a massive scale, with the full encouragement and support of President Clinton and his pro-abortion administration." In addition to the NRLC, Dr. Franz said, others taking part in the boycott will be the Southern Baptist Convention Christian Life Commission, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, and Focus on the Family. On May 16th, after nearly a year of negotiations, Roussel Uclaf of Paris announced it had given patent rights for RU 486 to the tax-exempt Population Council of New York, an abortion-advocacy organization supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. Saying "we hold Roussel Uclaf and its parent company fully responsible," Dr. Franz noted: "We acknowledge that this action would not have occurred without the specific encouragement of the Clinton administration." Dr. Franz said the pro-life group will be asking "tens of millions of pro-life Americans to boycott" pharmaceuticals and other products from Hoechst AG, the German parent company; Roussel Uclaf, the French manufacturer of RU 486; and U.S. subsidiaries of the international drug conglomerate: Hoechst Celanese and Hoechst-Roussel. Which products might be included in the boycott will be announced at a later date, Dr. Franz stated. Many industry officials say, however, that Hoechst-Roussel- its main U.S. firm - has few products to boycott, since most of its brand-name pharmaceuticals are now available as generic alternatives, anyway. In addition, RousseI Uclaf, the French subsidiary, markets no products in the U.S. while Hoechst AG, the German parent company, has for years opposed introducing the abortion pill here. During World War II, Hoechst AG was part of the I.G. Farben company, producer of Zyklon B, the gas used by the Nazis to eliminate Jews and others "devoid of value" in various concentration camps. Dr. Franz did not indicate whether the coalition might expand its boycott to include the Chicago-based G.D. Searle Company, the sole producer of misoprostol, a drug that must be used with RU 486 to expel the uterine content following the abortion pill's action. A spokesman for Searle told "The Wanderer" about a year ago (June 24th, 1993) that his company was not interested in "getting involved" with the Population Council's testing of RU 486. Misoprostol is marketed by Searle under the brand name "Cytotec" to treat patients having problems using some anti-ulcer medications. "Should the RU 486 abortion technique ever be used in this country," Dr. Franz noted, "there will, most certainly, be an increase in the number of abortions from the already enormous number of 1.6 million each year, with untold numbers of women injured and even killed." Also, she said, "we are concerned that licensing in the U.S. will encourage widespread use of RU 486 on Third World women," where one of the drug's most serious side effects, excessive bleeding, will affect many who are already anemic and suffering from malnutrition. RU 486 must be used three to seven weeks from fertilization- when the baby to be aborted already has a heartbeat, arms and legs, facial features, and brain waves-Dr. Franz pointed out. If RU 486 is approved by the FDA, there will be no way to prevent abortionists from using the drug beyond the seven-week maximum for safety, simply because most women will not know accurately the time they conceived. Some notes here on media attention to the upcoming RU 486 testings by the Population Council: * Widely syndicated columnist Molly Ivins-a writer for and other ultraliberal publications-assures readers: "Abortion Pill Will Not Cause Increase in U.S. Abortions." Says Ivins: "I love the network of French feminists who have been smuggling RU 486 into other countries for rape victims." And, "someday, the leading role [in trafficking in RU 486] played by airline flight attendants, who are so stereotyped as sex kittens, will be recognized." * "Name just one other drug for which the President has personally lobbied," asks Charmaine Crouse Yoest of the University of Virginia. "Having advocates like the Population Council bring this drug into the country presents a clear conflict of interest," Yoest notes in an op-ed contribution to (May 25th, 1994) entitled, "RU 486-Sunny Rhetoric vs. Bloody Reality." This article was taken from the June 16, 1994 issue of "The Wanderer," 201 Ohio Street, St. Paul, MN 55107. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The electronic form of this document is copyrighted. Copyright (c) Trinity Communications 1994. 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