Lethal infections prompt study of RU 486
- Nov 30, 2005
Federal officials will investigate the safety of the abortion drug RU 486 after they learned the four California women who died following its use suffered from an uncommon and lethal bacterial infection, The New York Times has reported.
Because all four deaths so far reported in the United States after RU 486 use took place in California, the Food and Drug Administration conducted research to determine if pills dispensed in the state were contaminated, according to The Times. Tests showed they were not contaminated, however.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will sponsor a meeting in early 2006 to discuss, among other things, whether RU 486 makes its users susceptible to the lethal bacteria, Clostridium sordelli, and, if it does, how it might be detected and prevented, The Times reported Nov. 23.
The father of one of the California women who died repeated his call for the suspension of RU 486 sales. “I believe this drug should be taken off the market,” Monty Patterson told The Times.
Among the deaths, that of Patterson’s 18-year-old daughter, Holly, has been by far the most widely publicized. A resident of Livermore, Calif., she died Sept. 17, 2003, after obtaining RU 486 from a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hayward, Calif. A bill, known as Holly’s Law, has been introduced in Congress that would remove RU 486 from the market while a review is conducted of the FDA’s approval of the drug.
ERLC President Richard Land and six other pro-life, pro-family leaders wrote Rep. Joe Barton, R.-Texas, chairman of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, a September letter urging him to hold a hearing on the bill, officially titled the RU 486 Suspension and Review Act, H.R. 1079, and to schedule a vote by the panel soon.
“H.R. 1079 is a logical response to the acknowledged role of this drug in the deaths of a number of women and to the mounting concern that this drug poses significant health risks to every woman who uses it,” the letter said.
Joining Land on the letter were Tom Minnery, vice president of Focus on the Family; Beverly LaHaye, chairman of Concerned Women for America; Phyllis Schlafly, president of Eagle Forum; Paul Weyrich, national chairman of Coalitions for America; Mariam Bell, public policy director for Prison Fellowship, and Connie Mackey, vice president of Family Research Council.
RU 486, or mifepristone, is used as the first part of a process normally occurring in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. That initial action causes the lining of the uterus to release the embryonic child. A second drug, known as misoprostol, is taken two days after mifepristone and causes the uterus to contract, expelling the baby.
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