By Dave Andrusko
Today's News and Views, National Right to Life
"Worried about a bacterial infection that led to the deaths of at least five [actually at least six] women who took the abortion pill RU-486, scientists from the nation's leading public health agencies will gather in Atlanta today for the first meeting in 10 years on the drug's safety." Skip to next paragraph New York Times, May 11
"The deaths linked to RU-486 have created an unusual split in the small world of abortion providers, a growing number of whom say that they will not dispense the drug. The risk of death with pill-based abortions now appears to be about 10 times that of surgical abortions." Same story, written by Gardiner Harris
By the time you read this edition of TN&V, scientists and researchers from the Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will have completed their first day of discussion in Atlanta, Georgia. Their focus is on the role of Clostridium sordellii, a virulent bacterium, in the deaths of at least six women following a RU-486 induced abortion and eleven other women who died after either giving birth or miscarrying.
There are a number of inter-related issues. Let me try to tackle three of them and begin by placing the conference and the issues raised in the larger context.
- Dr. Randall K. O'Bannon, NRLC's Director of Education and Research, has written exhaustively about RU486. His insights and admonitions have been first-rate.
He has constantly reminded us of something often overlooked: a "RU486" abortion involves not one but two drugs. RU486 (known as Mifeprex or mifepristone) is a steroid used to kill the unborn child. A second drug, a prostaglandin (known as Misoprostol), is given separately to induce contractions to expel the dead baby.
In the latest issue of NRL News, now winging its way to your home, Dr. O'Bannon keenly notes that abortion supporters are trying to place all the blame for the abortion-related deaths of these women on the prostaglandin. But, in fact, going back as far as a 1991 book, pro-abortion feminists [!] were warning that RU486 is potentially very dangerous to women, not the least reason of which is because it suppresses a woman's innate immune system.
It is unclear how extensively RU486's dangers will be discussed in Atlanta, but initial press accounts have largely glossed over its role in the deaths of these six women.
- In the RU486 context, there is the question of what is the mechanism, if you will, by which the bacterium Clostridium sordellii contributes to these women's deaths. Some are arguing it may be because more women are inserting the prostaglandin vaginally rather than taking it orally.
Only the latter protocol is approved by the FDA.
"The tablets are small, and women don't necessarily know where their vagina begins and ends," Dr. Phillip G. Stubblefield, a well-known pro-abortion professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University, told the Times. The idea is if women are not carefully they can "contaminate the vagina with the bacteria," he explained.
Even Planned Parenthood, for example, quietly changed its protocol after the sixth death. PPFA, the largest abortion provider in the world, now uses a protocol which has women taking the prostaglandin orally.
Another key abortion organization has seen the light. "After the deaths, the National Abortion Federation's insurer insisted that its clinics use the F.D.A. protocol when providing abortion drugs or face the loss of their medical malpractice insurance," according to the Times.
Two years ago, the FDA required that RU486 labels carry strong warnings regarding the risks of infection.
However, other well known abortionists dismiss this connection and continue to tell their abortion patients to use the prostaglandin vaginally.
- Then there is the issue raised by the deaths of eleven other women from Clostridium sordellii.
According to the Associated Press, "The risk posed by C. sordellii remains murky. In studies and letters published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December and April, researchers detail eight other women who died of C. sordellii infection after giving birth, vaginally or by Caesarean section. Also counted are two additional deaths following miscarriages and a final death linked to infection during the woman's menstrual period."
Finally, as noted in the beginning , some abortionists are refusing to do RU486 abortions altogether. It is not just the deaths alone, one presumes, that is making abortionists wary.
"In addition to the highly publicized deaths," the Associated Press reported, "the FDA said it has received reports of 950 cases of adverse reactions to the pill, including 18 cases of severe infections in women who required hospitalization and antibiotics."
We will keep you up to date as the conference unfolds.
More information: National Right to Life
Tennessee RU-486 Representative Matthew Hill
http://www.matthewlistens.blogspot.com
Do you all remember back to 1994 when the National Right to Life Committee organized the U.S. boycott of all Hoechst products including Altace? Perhaps you were not aware that during the summer of 1995, that the former King Pharmaceuticals President Jefferson "Jeff" Gregory ---a ccording to Forbes began negotiations with Hoechst to acquire the U.S. distribution rights (not an out-right purchase) of the Altace brand for the King Pharmaceuticals wholly-owned Monarch Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Gregory and his other family members then within the King Pharmaceuticals corporation violated the spirit of the U.S. boycott of Altace.
The King-Monarch Pharmaceuticals-Hoechst deal for Altace (and other Hoechst brand names) was finalized in late December of 1998. Hoechst underwent a corporate merger and name change in January, 1999. King-Monarch essentially became the U.S. business partner of Hoechst, getting Altace out from being underneath the Hoechst-RU-486 Altace association with the 1994 boycott. And King Pharmaceuticals --- according to their U.S. SEC 10k Annual Report filings coveribg 1999 to 2003 -- were still dependent upon the Hoechst German drug manufacturer for the primary active ingredient found within Altace.
The Concern Women for America group during the late 1990s annouced a more "focused" Hoechst boycott that did not include Altace. Why? The Gregorys at King and Monarch Pharmaceuticals were Altace business partners with Hoechst (and later re-packing of Hoechst corporate identity)...?
Pro-Lifers were duped from 1995 to 2003 (and beyond) on the King-Monarch-Altace deal