10 years ago: U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the abortion pill

On September 28, 2000 the United States Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved marketing of a pill that would induce abortions. The drug mifepristone, or RU-486, which blocks progesterone--a hormone necessary for pregnancy--was already available in China and many European countries. The FDA required that it be taken within seven weeks after the user’s last menstrual period. In the event that it failed to produce an abortion, the user would be required to have a surgical abortion.