The Italian government ordered the suspension of controversial experiments on an abortion pill which began last week at a hospital in Turin, the health ministry said. Conservatives and religious leaders have protested against the tests being conducted at the Sant Anna hospital in the northwestern city, seeing the RU 486 pill as a prelude to wider termination of pregnancies."Health Minister Francesco Storace signed a decree suspending experimentation on the abortion pill,” the ministry said in a statement.It said that only women who had already begun taking the pill as part of the experiments, which began last Tuesday, could continue with the treatment."The experiments will only be allowed to resume if the procedures and directions of the Health Council are rigorously respected,” the statement said.The ministry said health inspectors had reported that one woman who had taken the experimental pill had begun haemorrhaging after she left the hospital.The RU 486 pill was being offered as an alternative to surgical abortion to 400 women over a period of two years, following approval from the authorities.Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978 but the country has yet to authorize the use of RU 486, also known as Mifegyne.The “morning-after” pill, which prevents implantation of a fertilized egg, has been available on the Italian market since 2000.
