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Planned Parenthood Implicated in RU-486 Deaths of Four Women

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

ANN ARBOR, Michigan, June 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study conducted at the University of Michigan and published in The Journal of Immunology has indicated that "off-label use" of the controversial abortion drugs Mifepristone (Mifeprex) and Misoprostol (Cytotec), collectively called RU-486, may be linked to the death of at least eight women.

A press release from the American Life League states that Planned Parenthood's recommendation to use the abortion-causing drug Misoprostol vaginally rather than orally, contrary to FDA recommendations, has led to fatal infections directly causing the deaths of four of the women.

Until 2006, Planned Parenthood told women to take the drugs Misoprostol and Mifepristone (RU 486) vaginally. This occurred despite FDA protocol instructing women to take the drugs orally. When five patients died from the drug combination, Planned Parenthood quietly changed the policy to fall in line with FDA protocol.

The Michigan Messenger reported that Dr. David Aronoff, who led the study, said, "What struck me in those cases is the women had previously been healthy, then died after taking fairly high doses of synthetic prostaglandin E2, which is Misoprostol."

"Misoprostol appears to impair the immune response of cells in the reproductive tract, which might explain the fatal outcome of the cases in which women used the drug vaginally," Dr. Aronoff said. "When the drug is given orally, it does not appear to have a suppressive effect on reproductive tract immunology."

Now, the University of Michigan study finds that Misoprostol, the second of the two drugs that cause the chemical abortion, can allow Clostridium sordellii, normally non-threatening bacteria, to cause a deadly infection when taken vaginally.

Six out the eight women were infected with Clostridium sordellii. The other two contracted a related Clostridium bacterium.

A report in ScienceDaily warns that Clostridium sordellii infection as a result of RU-486 use is being closely watched by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because of the abortion-related deaths and because it is biologically very similar to another form of Clostridium bacteria, Clostridium difficile. C. difficile is of great concern especially in hospitals and other clinical settings, where it is causing increasing rates of infections.

"This study shows Planned Parenthood not only disregards the lives of babies in the womb, but the lives of their mothers as well," said Jim Sedlak. 

"This is scandalous, if not criminal."

"It's time people stopped viewing Planned Parenthood as a responsible healthcare organization and saw it for what it is -  a money-making, social engineering group that plies its trade of sex and abortion without regard to human life, born or preborn."

The FDA approved regimen for killing children who have already implanted in their mother's womb consists of an initial pill (either Mifepristone or Methotrexate) to kill the baby and a second pill (Misoprostol) to cause the dead baby to be expelled from the mother's body.

A report from the Family Research Council advised that although Planned Parenthood changed its guidelines for dispensing RU-386 in 2006, its defiance of FDA protocol continues in other ways as well. In addition to altering the suggested dosage, Planned Parenthood urges women to take one of the drugs at home, disregarding the FDA's warning that the second portion of the pill regime "should be done in a medical office to monitor women for complications."

Previous studies have already shown the link between RU-486 and maternal death caused by septic shock.

Research in 2005 at the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology at Brown University has provided clear evidence that Mifepristone causes conditions in which bacterial infections can take hold and become deadly.

Professor Ralph P. Miech explained that during an abortion using Mifepristone, the first stage of the drug shuts off progesterone, which halts the flow of nutrition to the placenta and the child. Dr. Miech showed that the anti-progesterone effects of Mifepristone also cause changes in the cervix that allow C. sordellii to enter the cervical canal. C. sordellii thrives in this low-oxygen environment and derives nutrition from the decaying fetal tissue.

Mifepristone, Miech said, also disrupts the immune system, which "impairs the body's ability to fight off C. sordellii and may help spread the bacteria's toxic by-products, a combination that sometimes results in widespread septic shock." The resulting infection makes its way into the blood stream, becoming life threatening.

At least two deaths from acute hemorrhage have been linked with RU-486.

In 2004 LifeSiteNews.com reported on the death of Rebecca Tell Berg, age 16, of Sweden. According to the report by a division of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare in Gothenburg, "a young woman bled to death as a direct consequence of the (RU-486) treatment."

More recently, the death of a U.K. teen made headlines around the world. Manon Jones, 18, bled to death two weeks after having a legal chemical abortion.

The inquest into this death heard that a post-mortem examination revealed Miss Jones died of hypovolemia, an abnormal decrease in blood volume and shock caused by what officials termed the "retained products of conception" - the remains of Jones's unborn child at 6 weeks gestation.

Link to University of Michigan study:
University of Michigan Health System: Study Sheds Light on Role of Abortion Drug
http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=375

Read related LifeSiteNews.com articles:

Abortion Drug RU-486 Company Admits to Death of Five Women
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05071905.html

Leading Researcher Proves RU-486 Causes Septic Shock Deaths
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05072802.html

More Information on RU-486 Death of Swedish 16-Year Old Girl
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04031601.html

UK Teen Fearful of Angering Boyfriend's Family Dies from Legal Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061209.html

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