Critics of RU 486 call for vote to suspend its sale
- Apr 3, 2006
Members of the House of Representatives continue to call for a floor vote on legislation to pull the abortion drug RU 486 from the market.
Forty-seven representatives wrote Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio April 10 to urge him to schedule action on the RU 486 Suspension and Review Act, H.R. 1079. They said, “An immediate vote on [the bill] would put the House of Representatives firmly on record as dedicated to preserving the lives and well-being of all women and to holding the FDA accountable for the manner in which it approves pharmaceutical products.”
The legislation would suspend the drug’s sale while a review of the FDA’s approval of the pill is conducted. A companion bill in the Senate is S. 511. The proposal has 81 cosponsors in the House and only 11 in the Senate.
At least six women’s deaths in the United States appear to have been related to use of the two-step drug regimen since RU 486 went on the market in September 2000. The most recent was revealed in March. The FDA announced in July 2005 four California women who underwent chemical abortions had died from an uncommon and lethal bacterial infection known as Clostridium sordellii. The FDA is helping convene a workshop May 11 in Atlanta for the purpose of drafting an agenda for research on the infection.
RU 486, also known as mifepristone, is used as the first part of a process normally occurring in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone causes the lining of the uterus to release the embryonic child. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken two days after mifepristone and causes the uterus to contract, expelling the baby.
The FDA’s approved regimen calls for taking both doses orally, but at least some abortion doctors have used misoprostol vaginally. All four women who tested positive for Clostridium sordellii after their deaths had been given stronger doses of misoprostol vaginally.