But Yale University recently announced that it will offer the drug to its students at its health services facilities.
Yale Health Services already offers the "morning after" pill and provides surgical abortions under its current health plan for students and staff.
Gila Rinestein, assistant director of public affairs at Yale, said the RU-486 is part of a full range of services in gynecology provided at the school. She said the final decision to use RU-486 will be based on the conversation between doctor and patient.
She added that the school neither encourages nor discourages abortion and Yale is not seeking to influence any other schools.
The drug has been available in Europe for more than a decade but was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September 2000.
Specialists recommend taking the drug in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Blocking a hormone necessary for pregnancy to continue and followed by other medicine, the pregnancy is terminated with a 95 percent success rate.
Clinical studies show that surgical equipment is necessary when you deal with RU-486. One percent of women using the pill might have heavy bleeding.
Mary Schlegel, director of women's health at Student Health Service, said the lack of appropriate surgical equipment is the reason the UNC is not offering RU-486 to students.
She also said that using RU-486 is not as cheap as some people have been lead to believe.
