However, the Planned Parenthood representative said that it could take the woman up to a week to pass the fetus. The patient might be one of the approximately five percent of women who require a follow-up surgical procedure to complete the abortion.

The patient is required to call the clinic responsible for her treatment forty-eight hours after inserting the vaginal tablets and check-in with a nurse a day later.

In a week to a week and a half, the Planned Parenthood representative said, the patient receives another ultrasound and pelvic exam to see if the abortion was completed.

The Brighton clinic is the only one of its type in the area to currently offer medical abortions using RU-486, the representative said yesterday.

"RU-486 is more popular just because more people know about it, but medical abortions [using other drugs] aren't a new thing," she said.

Before the approval of RU-486, she said, Planned Parenthood received around four appointments a week for medical abortions using methotrexate and misopristol.

Although these drugs were not approved by the FDA explicitly for medical abortions, in 1995 the New England Journal of Medicine published a study stating that the treatment was 96% effective if taken in the first 63 days of pregnancy.