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Sunday, March 19, 2006
Maternal Death and RU-486 This isn't getting enough publicityBefore I start, however ... perhaps I'm being nitpicky, but the headline on a FOX News article about RU-486 kind of irritated me. RU-486 Linked to Two More Deaths ... The CNN headline on a similar article: Two more women die after taking 'abortion pill' -- far more informative by adding the qualifier.Anyhow. Likely everyone is by now familiar with RU-486. It's the "chemical abortion" pill a woman can take in order to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. The procedure can be completed anytime in the first 49 days after conception. RU-486 has been available in the US since 2000, and the FDA-approved instructions require swallowing three tablets of Mifeprex, which stops the production of a hormone required to sustain pregnancy. This is then followed by swallowing two tablets of Misoprostol two days later, which causes contractions of the uterus to expel the uterine lining. By August of 2005 (that is, five years after it became available in the US), nearly half a million women in the US had used RU-486 to induce "chemical abortion." Now, to me, that means RU-486 has been used to complete a half million abortions -- ie: a half million fetal deaths have resulted. Maternal deaths are of course what the headline was referring to -- there have been at least seven so far in the US -- and that's something that should be made known before a woman considers ridding herself of an unwanted 'problem' by using RU-486. You must obtain RU-486 from a doctor or clinic -- you cannot go to a pharmacy and obtain them yourself. And apparently most abortion clinics instruct that the Mifeprex be swallowed as directed, and then the Misoprostol should be used as a vaginal suppository -- what the FDA refers to as an "off-label" usage which does work. Usually. So far, in at least four of the maternal death cases, the women followed the "off-label" instructions. Six of the seven women definitely died from sepsis -- an infection of the blood stream. (The other woman died as a result of trying to abort an ectopic [tubal] pregnancy.) Planned Parenthood has at least finally agreed to stop suggesting (and performing) vaginal insertion of the second round of pills. The FDA has not pulled either component of RU-486, as they say that the cause of death -- sepsis -- cannot be confirmed to have been caused by RU-486. Still seven women have died of sepsis after using RU-486. While seven out of a half million is a very small percentage, it is nevertheless troubling. And it's not an abortion related issue either -- the pill is causing a fetal death, plain and simple. Shouldn't women know that it's also potentially going to cause their own death as well? Maybe if those women had known that their own deaths were a potential side effect they might have made a very different decision. [FOX, CNN, Wikipedia, Google It!] Kate blogs at The Original Musings. Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Kate at 3:59 AM |
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1 Comments:
I think you make a huge leap assuming that women aren't informed of the risks of medical abortion. Where does that assertion come from? 7 deaths out of 560,000 abortions equals a 1 in 80,000 chance of death. The risk of maternal death is greater if a woman carries a pregnancy to term.
The US population is approx. 296,000,000 (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html About 40,000 people in the US die in car accidents each year. (http://www.car-accidents.net/car-accidents-statistics.html) Your risk of dying in a car accident is 1 in 7,400.
Clearly the call to take away medical abortion isn't about the drugs safety... many drugs on the market have greater risks. This is about restricting abortion and taking away options from women.
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