Known as the abortion pill and mifepristone, RU-486 has been under wide scrutiny since it was approved by the FDA last September. Call it what you like, but Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm still calls it abortion.

Granholm issued her opinion Tuesday in response to Michigan Department of Community Health Director James Haveman"s question of whether RU-486 constitutes as abortion.

Granholm, a Democrat, cited the Social Welfare Act, the Parental Rights Restoration Act and the Public Health Code in determining that "the intentional use of mifepristone to terminate a woman"s pregnancy for a purpose other than to increase the probability of a live birth, to preserve the life or health of the child after live birth, or to remove a dead fetus, and not as a contraceptive, constitutes an "abortion.""

As regulated by the state, women under the age of 18 who wish to have an abortion must have permission of one guardian or a judge, and they must receive information designed by the state, including pictures of fetal development, at least 24 hours before the abortion.

Medicaid will not cover RU-486 in its policy, as they do not cover surgical abortion procedures.

The Ann Arbor Planned Parenthood clinic will begin offering RU-486 sometime within the next few weeks.

Mary Long, Director of Development for Mid-Michigan Planned Parenthood Clinics, said Granholm"s opinion does not change the services that Planned Parenthood will provide.

"It doesn"t really change anything about providing service for our patients. All of the things we would have normally done, we would be doing anyway," Long said.

Students for Life President Andrew Shirvell said he is pleased with Granholm"s opinion. "We view this as a positive change that Michigan views (RU-486) as a form of abortion. Her ruling is correct it should be regulated under the same rules as a surgical abortion," he said. "It"s very different from other forms of contraception. The job of the pill is to expel the fetus from the uterus."

Students for Choice President Jennifer Anderson said Granholm"s recent opinion puts more restrictions on women and this is a curious stance for a pro-choice attorney general. She speculated that it may have been a political decision considering the state"s Republican governor and Legislature.

"A lot of the restrictions placed on the surgical procedure have been put on it to restrict access," Anderson said. He added that her group is concerned that women who live in areas in Michigan that are not close to abortion clinics will require RU-486 to be available to their private physicians and this will limit the range of options for women.

"We"re in favor of (RU-486) largely because it provides more options for women," Anderson said.

RU-486 blocks the hormone progesterone, which is needed for a pregnancy to continue, and when mifepristone is taken along with a medicine called misoprostol, the pregnancy will end when taken 49 days or less after the final day of a menstrual period.

To give patients RU-486, doctors must be able to date pregnancies, diagnose tubal pregnancies and provide arrangements for any necessary surgery.

Long said although women obtaining RU-486 from clinics will be concretely under the same guidelines as those who will have the surgical abortion procedure, some women still see an advantage to taking RU-486.

"Some women like the idea that they can take the drug and then go home," Long said.