PULLMAN, Wash. — A medical expert on women’s health care issues will discuss the so-called abortion drug, RU 486, during an April 4 talk at Washington State University as the Allen I. White Lecture.
Dr. Carolyn L. Westhoff will give the free, public lecture, “Mifepristone (RU 486) — Science, Medicine and Politics,” at 7 p.m. in Webster Physical Sciences Building, Room 16. A public reception follows.
Westhoff is an associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and public health at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. She is also medical director of family planning at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City and has authored or coauthored more than 70 articles on obstetrics and gynecologic topics. She participated in the Mifepristone Clinical Trials Group in the United States in the late 1990s.
RU 486, sold as Mifeprex, is a two-drug regimen approved for sale in the United States by the Federal Drug Administration last September. Taken within seven weeks of conception, the drug regimen disrupts the hormonal support required to sustain pregnancy.
Westhoff was selected by the WSU College of Pharmacy to present this year’s White Lecture, an annual event named after a longtime college faculty member and former dean who lives in Pullman.
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