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Benten v. Kessler : The RU 4 86 Import Case

1992; American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1748-720x.1992.tb01196.x

2151-7878

Rachael N. Pine,

Reproductive Health and Technologies

On July I, 1992, I received a phone call from a reporter asking for my response to Leona Benten's choice to defy the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ban on RU 4 86 by bringing a single personal dose of the abortifacient drug into the U.S. on a flight from Europe. By the end of the day, my colleagues and I at the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy had been asked and had agreed to represent Leona and her companions, Dr. Louise Tyrer and Lawrence Lader, in their legal challenge to the import ban and, more urgently, in their effort to retrieve the RU 4 86 pills that were confiscated from Leona by U.S. Customs officials at the airport. Leona, who was 6 weeks pregnant and who desperately wanted to terminate her pregnancy by a non-surgical abortion method, had only two more weeks in which to use the drug according to prevailing medical protocol.