ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130134
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge will not be among the Planned Parenthood clinics participating in the nonsurgical abortion trial scheduled to begin next month.
The Roanoke Planned Parenthood clinic does abortions, but does not have a system in place to meet the protocols for the nonsurgical experiment, said spokesman David Nova.
Agencies that want to participate in a drug-induced abortion test must have a physician on call 24 hours, and the Roanoke facility does not have that, he said.
Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration gave the national Planned Parenthood organization permission to test the effectiveness and safety of injectable methotrexate in inducing abortions. The size of the test group is expected to be about 3,000 women.
So far, the only Eastern U.S. clinics participating are in Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia.
Methotrexate was initially used to treat cancer but lately has been given for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and tubal or ectopic pregnancies. Smaller-scale trials have indicated that it is feasible to use for nonsurgical abortions also.
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