The controversial history of the abortion pill mifepristone

Fall of 1988 marked the beginning of a tumultuous battle to bring mifepristone to market.

That September, French authorities cleared the drug for use at up to seven weeks of pregnancy. The decision met with protests, boycott threats and violence from antiabortion extremists, who at one point set fire to a Paris movie theater. Within weeks of approval, Roussel-Uclaf reversed course and pulled the drug.

Almost immediately, however, physicians and abortion rights groups began pushing back, mobilizing protests and boycotts of their own. The French government, which owned a stake in Roussel-Uclaf, threatened to transfer the drug patent if the company didn’t resume distribution. Days later, Roussel-Uclaf executives put mifepristone back on the market.

The French health minister said at the time: “I could not permit the abortion debate to deprive women of a product that represents medical progress. From the moment Government approval for the drug was granted, RU-486 became the moral property of women, not just the property of the drug company.”