US doctors debate safety of abortifacient drug

Two pro-life doctors in the United States are calling for mifepristone to be withdrawn from the market after looking into reports filed to the Food and Drug Administration of adverse reactions.

Their request coincided with Senate hearings on the nomination to the Supreme Court of the controversial judge Samuel Alito, who favours ending women's right to abortion.

The doctors, Margaret Gary and Donna Harrison, members of a subcommittee of the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists that is looking into the drug, analysed reports of 607 adverse events that they received after a request to the FDA under the terms …