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On September 18, after a seven-year battle to introduce RU 486 in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration finally announced it was approving the new "abortion drug". While pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers often bemoan long and laborious fights for FDA approval, RU 486 moved swiftly through the maze. In fact, the entire regulatory process took less than two years. But RU 486 faced a different kind of obstacle: the prolifers. Not a single American company was willing to risk their wrath by selling this drug. They had already witnessed the potential costs of such a venture. In 1989, after introducing RU 486 in France, the makers of the pill, Roussel Uclaf, briefly considered bringing it to the US. When American prolifers learned of Roussel Uclaf's plans, they mounted a massive campaign, got George Bush to ban the drug's import, and threatened to boycott the products of Roussel Uclaf and its sister companies.

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