The Food and Drug Administration approved a pregnancy-termination pill for the United States Thursday, eliciting mixed results from the ISU community. Mifepristone, which has been legal in Europe for more than a decade as an alternative to surgical abortion, prevents the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. The tablet will be marketed under the name Miseprex in about a month, and can be taken any time from two to seven weeks into the pregnancy to cause the abortion, said Jill June, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa in Des Moines. “I would view this as a historic event,” June said. “It is comparable to the day 40 years ago when the birth-control pill was approved.” Clinical trials for the abortion pill were conducted at the Planned Parenthood state headquarters in Des Moines in 1994 and 1995, June said, and the test runs proved successful. “We are familiar with the pill and the administration of this drug and how women feel about it,” June said. “It is well-proven to be safe and effective.” Many pro-life groups are stung by the FDA’s approval, maintaining that the legalization of the drug will “further numb our consciences to the violence of abortion and the taking of innocent human life,” according to a statement issued by Gail Quinn, executive director of the Secretariat of the Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activists. Dave Hyman, president of the Cyclone Bible Fellowship, said the pill could desensitize college students to the responsibility of having sex. “I think that people just being able to take a pill and not see the consequences is going to determine their actions and make it easier,” said Hyman, junior in animal science. However, Marti Dettman, teaching assistant in sociology, said the tablet should not play into the decision to have sex. “I don’t think it will necessarily increase sexual activity, but it is something that students will know is available if they need it,” said Dettman, who teaches a sociology-relationships course. Nathan Ashmore, president of the American Civil Liberties Union at Iowa State, said the organization supports the use of the abortion pill. “As an ACLU member who is pro-choice, I would say that I am not opposed to any safe pill that offers a woman greater control of her body,” said Ashmore, sophomore in materials engineering. June said she does not expect Miseprex to impact the number of abortions. “First, a woman makes a very conscientious and careful and sometimes difficult decision to end a pregnancy,” she said. “Women decide whether to have an abortion, and now they can decide how they have an abortion. A women’s decision on being sexually active is not predicated on whether they think they will have an abortion.” The drug is administered by a physician, and the abortion takes place over a few days, June said. The cost of the drug is about $300, but the entire procedure is about $1,000 due to the necessary follow-up clinic visits, she said, an amount comparable to the price of a surgical abortion. Although more than half a million women worldwide have successfully terminated pregnancies with the drug, which is known in Europe as RU-486, June said some women have experienced side effects, including cramping, bleeding, nausea and diarrhea. “There are a small number of cases that the medicine is not effective, and we must complete the abortion with a surgical procedure,” she said. “Another complication can be severe bleeding, but that occurred in less than 1 percent of the women.” June said political obstacles have delayed the approval of the abortion drug, and opponents of the drug in Congress may try again to ban Miseprex. “The Bush administration banned the importation of this drug, but on Clinton’s second day of office, he lifted the ban,” she said. “We believe this drug is the moral property of American women. Abortion is legal, and this drug is safe and effective. The FDA has said so today, and we think it is wrong to let politics get in the way of health practices.” Still, pro-life supporters feel the drug is yet another instrument of death. “My feelings are that, at the moment of conception, you have a human being, and even with the pill, you are committing murder,” Hyman said.