News

By Hilary White
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  NEW YORK, November 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The recent flurry of publicity surrounding the Ortho Evra contraceptive patch has resulted in some doctors refusing to prescribe the deadly drug. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that some doctors do not want to take chances after the manufacturer began including warnings of fatalities and stroke related to the patch.
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  Lee Shulman, incoming board chair of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and a consultant to Ortho-McNeil, said the company expected a “decrease in use” of the patch.
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  The patch is worn on the skin and delivers a massive dose of progestin and estrogen to the blood stream. The manufacturers, Ortho-McNeil, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, have agreed under pressure from lawsuits and the Food and Drug Administration, to include warnings of stroke and blood clot-related deaths to its packaging.
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  Dozens of suits are pending against the company for death and injuries related to the patch. To date, nearly twenty women have died as a result of wearing it.