(ANSA) - Health Minister Francesco Storace called for restraint and "respect" on Thursday amid a bitter row over the resumption of tests on an 'abortion pill'.
"I would like everyone to walk along a path of propriety and respect," Storace said a day after Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano condemned the decision to restart tests at Turin's Sant'Anna hospital. Testing of the RU486 pill was suspended by the health ministry last month but was given a fresh green light on Tuesday and the first patients are expected to arrive next week.
The decision to resume the programme provoked fierce protests in Catholic circles. Osservatore Romano described it as an "act against life".
"Once again science is placed at the service of death, as the shared roots of abortion and contraception become increasingly clear," the daily wrote. Catholic politicians on the right voiced agreement while leftwingers described the Vatican daily as peaking out of turn and in "anachronistic" language.
Speaking on the sidelines of a doctors' conference in Taranto, Storace called for an end to the polemics, drawing attention to the sensitive, personal nature of the subject. "I hope this quite offensive behaviour will stop. You have to be careful on these issues because you're touching people's consciences," he said.
The minister drew attention to the changes made in the testing programme as a result of his intervention last month, saying these should be "respected". The tests were stopped because it emerged that some women were taking the pill in hospital and then going home, where the foetus was later expelled.
Storace insisted that patients be kept in hospital for two days and that a doctor should be present at the moment when the foetus was expelled. This point is important because under Italian law pregnancy terminations can only be carried out in hospital. RU486, also known as mifepristone, causes a miscarriage if it is taken within the first seven weeks of pregnancy.
The pill was first introduced in France in 1988 andthree years later in Britain and Sweden. As of last year, French women can self-administer it. Despite its effectiveness, the pill is said to havevarious possible side effects, including nausea, vomiting, headaches and heavy cramping. According to doctors, all patients bleed for one to two weeks but the risk of severe hemorrhaging is rare.
