POLITICIANS SHOULDN'T PLAY PRETEND AT BEING SCIENTISTS;

They should leave to doctors judgments on the abortion pill

NOT CONTENT, in its quite finite wisdom, with intruding on morality,
Congress has now barged into the laboratory to make scientific judgments.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted 223-202 to ban using
federal money or federal power to test, develop or approve RU 486, the
French abortion pill.

The drug, also known as mifepristone, is available commercially in France,
Sweden and Great Britain. In the United States, the Food and Drug
Administration two years ago declared it safe and effective but has not
granted final approval. Sometimes called the "morning after pill," RU 486
chemically induces abortion by blocking the hormone progesterone, which is
needed to sustain pregnancy, if taken within nine weeks of conception.

The House vote seeks to take judgments about the safety and efficacy of RU
486 away from the FDA, which is charged under federal law with making those
decisions. The vote came in an amendment to the farm spending bill for
fiscal year 1999, which includes the FDA budget.

Oklahoma Rep. Tom Coburn, the Republican author of the amendment, said
federal approval of RU 486 would mean End of Column 1 "killing babies."
That, he said, would violate the FDA's mission to ensure that drugs are
"safe and effective."

We think Rep. Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat, got it right when she said
Coburn was putting "ideology ahead of science." As Lowey also pointed out,
the amendment would interfere with a woman's legal right to choose to have
an abortion early in pregnancy.

"We need to make abortions less necessary, not more dangerous," Lowey told
House members. Her colleagues didn't agree.

The best that can be hoped is that the Senate will act more sensibly and
undo Coburn's mischief. It's breathtaking to think that 223 members of the
House believe it's OK to substitute their judgment as politicians for that
of doctors and scientists.

All the House Republicans who otherwise complain of too much government
regulation should be especially ashamed. Congress doesn't belong in
Americans' bedrooms - or anywhere in our private lives.

Moral judgments by politicians are bad enough. When they slip on lab coats
and try to tinker with science, we might as well turn over the laboratories
to the rhesus monkeys.

1998 San Francisco Examiner Page A 18

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)