Politics
Monday July 11, 2005
Abortion Pill RU-486 on Essential Drug List of World Health Organization
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LONDON, July 11, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British Medical Journal reported Saturday that the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the RU-486 chemical abortifacient as an “essential” medicine for inclusion in a list of medicines required to be available to physicians working in developing countries.
Arguing that the combination of mifepristone followed later by misoprostol is a safe alternative to surgical abortion in countries where abortion is often illegal, the WHO authorized inclusion of the drug as essential to combat what it terms back-alley “unsafe abortions.”
WHO director of medicines policy and standards and secretary of its essential medicines committee Hans Hogerzeil criticized the US, opposition to the inclusion of RU-486 as an “essential” medicine. The US did achieve one goal – the inclusion of a phrase in the essential drug list that reads, “Where permitted under national law and where culturally acceptable.”
The UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said it “hoped enough cultures rejected the drugs … as they would bring innocent life to an end,” as reported by the BMJ.
After news of the RU-486 inclusion by WHO, Planned Parenthood wrote to congratulate its members, saying, “More than 5,000 FreeChoiceSavesLives.org activists like you took action to protect these women by emailing Dr. Lee Jong-Wook at the World Health Organization (WHO).” Planned Parenthood congratulated its members for putting pressure on Jong-Wook to include RU-486. “Your emails urging him not to cave in to the inappropriate, ideologically-driven pressure it was receiving from the Bush administration's Department of Health and Human Services seem to have given the WHO the encouragement it needed to stop dragging its feet.”
Concerned Women for America (CWA) posted on its Web site in January public documents revealing approximately 600 serious complications suffered by women who used the abortion drug RU-486 in the US.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Public Documents Reveal Numerous RU-486 Complications
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jan/05012403.html
Media Silent On Ru-486's Nazi Death Camp Pedigree
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/oct/001004a.html
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