ISU Student Health officials have not ruled out offering the abortion pill at the campus clinic, but they said no decision will be made in the near future.

If students express interest and ISU health administrators recommend offering Mifeprex, the abortion pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration in September, Iowa State could become one of only a handful of universities to offer the controversial drug, said Marc Shulman, chief of staff at the ISU Student Health Center.

However, that point may be years down the line, he said.

“It is being considered as any other medical procedure, . but there’s no time frame on that,” Shulman said. “We will find out more about it and find out if it is even something students would want to be offered here.”

Mifeprex, which can be administered in the first 49 days of pregnancy, causes a woman’s uterus to expel the fetus much like a miscarriage.

Over the past few months, several students have approached student-health officials with questions about the abortion pill, or RU-486 as it is called in Europe, he said. The drug has been used to terminate pregnancies for more than a decade there.

The wants and needs of students will play a major role in determining whether the drug will be offered at Iowa State, Shulman said.

“I think the best thing is to find out if this is what the students want and then see if we can offer it here,” he said. “There are arguments on both sides of it, as would be expected for anything this controversial. . We want you to ask the questions and give you the best answers we can.”

In order to prescribe Mifeprex, physicians must sign an agreement to make pre-procedure and post-procedure care available to patients, said Sue Ferden, quality assurance director of Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa.

Health-care officials at the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa said they decided not to offer the abortion pill because their clinics would not be able to offer the necessary follow-up care.

“We don’t have the facilities to handle it,” said Sue Courts, health clinic director of the UNI Student Health Clinic. “The biggest issue is the after-hour potential for complications. We shouldn’t give something we couldn’t take care of.”

Students at the University of Iowa who consider taking Mifeprex to induce an abortion have options outside the campus clinic, said Larry Afifi, nurse manager at the University of Iowa Student Health Center.

“Every time something new comes up, we review it,” she said. “We have decided it is being offered elsewhere in Iowa City, so [students] have other options.”

As long as the procedure is performed with care and follow-up attention is available, Ferden said Planned Parenthood supports providing Mifeprex on college campuses.

“We believe that anyone should have the opportunity to have [Mifeprex] available,” she said. “Your Student Health does a great job taking care of students. It’s just another service.”

Abby Hansen, president of the ISU Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, also said it is important to provide students with choices.

“Expanding options is always a good thing, especially on a college campus, where [abortion] is a big issue,” said Hansen, junior in women’s studies.

Some students said the accessibility of the abortion pill on campus could desensitize people to the reality of abortion and eliminate the consequences of sex.

“That would make it not as big of a deal if they can just take a pill and be done with it,” said Joe Vos, former student leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and junior in mechanical engineering. “It would just kind of become a staple to people, as bad as it sounds.”

If the Student Health Center has the facilities and capability to offer the drug but decides against it, it is comparable to dictating morals to students, said Nathan Ashmore, president of the ISU chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“I think that Student Health should make available those drugs that have been approved by the FDA for human use,” said Ashmore, junior in materials engineering. “If [students] choose to have an abortion, they have that right, and that right should be made available to them.”