Tuscan Hospital Swamped with Requests for Abortion Pill

As soon as news was released that an experiment using the abortion pill RU486 was underway at a hospital in the Tuscan town of Pontedera, calls requesting information about the pill, as well as requests for the pill itself, have been coming in from all over the country. Although RU486 is not available in Italy, local health officials at the hospital had begun an experiment to see whether it was possible to have the drug shipped from France within the restricted timeframe necessary for the pill to be effective. One of the two women who were trial candidates for the pill was able to receive the pill in time. The experiment has not been conducted without criticism. Health Minister Francesco Storace noted that these experiments go contrary to the spirit of the law whose objective, he claims, is to prevent abortion.