France approves mifepristone as first legal medical abortion drug

France becomes the first country to approve mifepristone, a drug developed by Roussel Uclaf that blocks the hormone progesterone and ends a pregnancy when taken in the first trimester. The French government approves it under the brand name RU-486 over protests from anti-abortion groups, with Health Minister Claude Evin declaring it "the moral property of women." The approval immediately triggers U.S. anti-abortion advocacy to block mifepristone from reaching American patients. The drug''s existence reshapes the abortion debate: it creates the prospect of medication abortion without surgery or clinic visits, dramatically expanding access potential — which is precisely why opponents mount sustained regulatory campaigns against it for the next four decades.