Tuesday November 16, 2004
Abortion Pill a Danger to Women FDA Admits with New Warning Labels
WASHINGTON, November 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Federal Food and Drug Administration has ordered changes to the warning labels on the abortion pill Mifeprex, or RU-486, the lethal drug developed in France as a home-abortion kit. The FDA approved the drug in 2000 and despite a number of deaths of women and dangerous complications such as ectopic pregnancies, it had until now declined to change the warning labels.
In a media release the FDA admitted that it had received reports of "serious bacterial infection, bleeding, ectopic pregnancies that have ruptured, and death, including another death from sepsis." The FDA is now 'reminding' health workers that sepsis can occur without the usual signs of infection such as fever and pain. The new warning also says that health workers should "be vigilant for patients with undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies (tubal pregnancies) as this condition may be missed by physical examination and ultrasound."
The FDA has received 676 reports of problems with the drug, including 17 ectopic pregnancies, 72 cases of blood loss so severe that they required transfusions, and seven cases of serious infections
In the last year LifeSiteNews.com has reported three deaths of young mothers who took the abortion drug. In Canada, after the death of a woman involved in a study of the drug which has been called by pro-lifers the 'human pesticide,' Health Canada told LifeSiteNews.com that information on adverse reactions to drugs in clinical trials is not public information even when a death is involved.
In June, 2003 a young Swedish woman, Rebecca Tell Berg, age 16, died after an RU-486 abortion in the west coast city of Uddevalla. In California, 18 year-old Holly Patterson died of septic shock after taking the drug which was prescribed by the local Planned Parenthood office.
Holly Patterson's father, Monty, has campaigned to have the drug banned. He said the FDA's actions are not enough. "I'm not convinced this drug is safe, and I still think it should be banned," Patterson said.
Read the FDA media release:
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01134.html
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