With its approval last week by the Food and Drug Administration, the abortion-inducing pill RU-486 will move beyond abstract debate and into the daily lives of women.

Its American distributor says the prescription drug, also known as mifepristone, will be in doctors' offices within a month, and the first wave of patients will begin to evaluate the process for themselves.

What they should discover is that RU-486 does not provide the quick fix some abortion-rights advocates had anticipated.

Comparisons to the birth control pill and empowering images of women taking the drug as needed in the privacy of their own home are not quite appropriate.

The new drug is actually just the first in a three-step, physician-guided procedure — one that comes with the warning of painful side effects and a more extended course of action than a surgical abortion.

First, each patient reads over detailed instructions and signs a form stating that she understands the procedure.

The doctor then administers three pills of mifepristone, which blocks reception of progesterone, a hormone that is necessary to maintain pregnancy.

Two days later, the patient returns to the office to receive a dose of misoprostol, a drug already on the market, which induces uterine contractions.

The FDA's studies showed that bleeding can last for nine to 16 days afterwards. Some women also experienced headaches, nausea, cramping and diarrhea.

In extreme cases, women needed blood transfusions to counterbalance especially severe bleeding.

Two weeks after the second visit, each patient must make another appointment with her physician to ensure that the drug combination helped to expel all the fetal tissue.

Women who choose this method of abortion will trade one day of intrusive surgery for a few weeks of lingering symptoms akin to a natural miscarriage.

Initially, the procedures will cost about the same, but women who live in areas without abortion clinics could find the drug to be a more convenient alternative. Also, drug-induced abortions are only recommended for use up to seven weeks into the pregnancy.

Abortion opponents have warned that the availability of mifepristone will encourage more women to choose abortion during crisis pregnancies.

In countries such as France where the pill has been legal for almost a dozen years, the number of abortions has not increased considerably due to its use.

However, we should withhold judgment for the drug's effect on overall totals until we can see if Americans use the drug as much as women in Europe.

Mifepristone should be touted as an innovative option in women's reproductive health care.

But it will not replace surgical abortions nor guard patients from the emotional trauma and moral implications that can accompany the termination of a pregnancy.