After years of fitful and controversial debates, the government of Italy has legalized the use of the abortion drug RU-486. Despite enormous contrariety and threats of immediate excommunication coming from the Vatican. Italy’s drug regulating body, the Italian Drug Agency after a long and woeful deliberation ruled the legalization of the said drug.
RU-486 is an oral drug that alters pregnancy by preventing the attachment of a fertilized ovum to the uterine wall.
As of the moment RU-486 is already available under and sometimes over the counter in several European countries and the approval of the Italian Drug Agency is just a formality to the matter.
The agency also issued guidelines in using the drug, citing that it should be use up to the seventh week of pregnancy, and not up to the ninth to avoid higher risk for the pregnant woman.
On the other hand, the church expresses their disbelief and disappointment with the agency’s decision.
Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, a senior church bioethicist commented on the matter saying; "That’s not how you alleviate human suffering, that’s not how you help women, that’s not how you help mankind,"
However, there are also those who are ecstatic with the drug’s approval. Women’s groups and pro-choice organizations were in unison saying that the pill will provide women with an additional, noninvasive procedure of contraception.