* RU-486 The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that the abortion pill RU-486 was approved for sale in the United States. The pill first debuted in France in 1988, offering women a less intrusive method of terminating a pregnancy than does a surgical abortion. But abortion foes have long opposed its approval for use in the United States. Indeed, this issue was immediately injected into the presidential campaign, as Vice President Al Gore supports and Texas Governor George Bush opposes the FDA decision. The last time that Gallup asked specifically about RU-486 was last March/April, when just over half of all Americans -- 54% -- said they had heard about the abortion pill. Those who had heard of the pill approved making it available in the U.S. as a prescription drug by 54% to 38%. In July 1996, a similar question showed that an even higher number of people -- 65% -- had heard of the RU-486 pill because of its prominence in the news at that time. Among those who had heard of the pill, the margin of support for making it available in the U.S. as a prescription drug was about the same then -- 52% in favor and 38% opposed -- as it is now.
* Abortion With the differences in opinion between Gore and Bush over RU-486, the issue of abortion could well become a major issue in the campaign. In a videotaped address to the Christian Coalition last week, Bush reaffirmed his support for a ban on "partial birth" abortion, and expressed his support generally for "a culture that values life." In a March-April poll of this year, Americans expressed support for a ban on partial birth abortion by 66% to 29%. In general, however, the poll shows that Americans continue to think it should be legal for a woman to have an abortion in the first trimester, by 65% to 31%, but think it should be illegal in the second and third trimesters -- by 69% to 24% and 86% to 8% respectively.