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CANADIAN WOMAN DIES IN RU-486 ABORTION PILL TEST

NEW YORK, September 11, 2001 (LSN.ca) - A Canadian woman has died during testing of the abortion pill RU-486 known also as Mifepristone. The US-based Population Council, which holds the US rights to Mifepristone, released a report noting that as a result of the death, enrollment in the study has been temporarily suspended

The Population Council refused to release any information about the woman other than that she was Canadian. It did not release any details of the testing and death. The Population Council said in their release that the Federal Drug Administration and Canadian authorities had been informed.

Ted Gerk of the Pro-Life Resource Center in British Columbia told LifeSite the abortion pill trials in Canada are funded by the British Columbia government. The tests of RU-486 in Canada are taking place in Vancouver, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Que. and Women's College Hospital in Toronto and are spearheaded by Vancouver abortionist Dr. Ellen Weibe.

Campaign Life Coalition Canada director Mary Ellen Douglas told LifeSite, "Campaign Life Coalition has always warned that RU-486 is deadly to the baby and harmful to the mother and the very sad death of this mother proves that this is a very dangerous chemical cocktail."

RCMP officials told LifeSite that they were unaware of the case and that perhaps local police were involved. Health Canada spokesperson Roslin Tremblay told LifeSite that information on adverse reactions to drugs in clinical trials is not public information even when a death is involved. She said it was "entirely up to the investigator to make the information public." Canadians are left to wonder how many experimental drug-related deaths have occurred in Canada given the government's rules on restriction of public access to such information.

Tremblay did confirm that Health Canada had received a report from the sponsors of the RU-486 trials noting the death, and Health Canada is investigating it and stressed that the cause of death remains undetermined. Tremblay also said all trials in Canada have been suspended.

The Population Council was unavailable for comment.

See the AP coverage of the RU-486 death:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010911/aponline080436_000.htm

See related LifeSite coverage:
http://lsn.ca/ldn/2000/july/000707.html#1

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