Date:  Sat, 12 Nov 1994 13:40:45 CST

From:  Mike Picone <MPICONE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UA1VM.UA.EDU>

Subject: Re: Eighty-six



Though I don't have an exact date, I can confirm that RU 486, invented

in France, was produced there under that name long before it ever made it

to American shores. The RU most certainly stands for Roussel-Uclaf, the

pharmaceutical concern that introduced it. In birth control (and the

controversy associated with aspects of it) many calqued expressions and

many terms have crossed the Altantic in the other direction: planning

familial, contraception (1929), contraceptif (1955), la "pilule",

Operation Sauvetage, "Le Cri Silencieux", etc., but

RU 486 is not one of them. It is a direct

import from France.



Here is a terminologically interesting passage from a pro-life pamphlet

appearing in Sept. 1992:



Un projet de loi socialiste visant a la depenalisation de l'auto-avortement,

dont le seul but, au dela du rideau de fumee des bons sentiments, etait

d'ouvrir la porte a la vente libre du RU 486 -- l'avortement-kit ou le

revolver dans le tiroir de la table de nuit, selon l'heureuse expression

du professeur Lejeune -- a ete repousse, grace au courage et a la lucidite

du Senat essentiellement. On n'en a pratiquement pas parle. C'est pourtant

une deroute pour les fondamentalistes du lobby pro-avortement.



Mike Picone

University of Alabama

MPICONE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UA1VM.UA.EDU