Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Agenda-Motivated Claims that RU-486 is “Safe” and “Easy” Are Dead Wrong

by Jessica Sage, Staff Counsel, Americans United for Life

Brenda Vise, a 38-year old pharmaceutical representative, died on
September 12, 2001.  Holly Patterson, an 18-year old student, died on
September 17, 2003.  Chanelle Bryant, 22-years old, died on January 14,
2004.  Vivian Tran, also 22 years old, died on December 29, 2003. 
Orianne Shevin, a 34-year old attorney and mother of two, died on June
14, 2005.

What do these women have in common?  They all took RU-486, the
so-called “abortion pill,” and died—most from a C. Sordelli infection
and one from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.  RU-486—a drug that its
proponents claim is a “safe” and “easy” method of abortion—has killed
at least 29 women worldwide including at least 8 American women.

This month marks the 21st anniversary of French approval of the
controversial abortion drug.  Initially, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) considered RU-486 dangerous and banned the
importation of the drug.  However, later in 1993, following the wishes
of then-President Bill Clinton, the FDA lifted the import ban and the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) brokered a deal for the
drug manufacturer, Roussel-Uclaf, to gratuitously donate the rights to
distribute RU-486 in the U.S. to the Population Council, an
organization whose mission is to research, develop and introduce birth
control methods (including abortion) to control populations—“especially
[for] disadvantage populations.”

Since the Population Council is a research and policy organization, not
a drug company, it founded Danco Laboratories for the sole purpose of
marketing and distributing RU-486 in the U.S.  Unable to find a U.S.
company willing to manufacture the drug, Danco Laboratories turned to
China—a nation known for coerced abortions—and a manufacturer formerly
cited by the FDA for tainted drugs.

In September 2000—during the final days of the Clinton
Administration—the FDA approved RU-486, or Mifeprex (generic name:
mifepristone), under its accelerated approval regulations designed to
expedite drug approvals for HIV patients.  Suddenly, the FDA deemed
that the benefits of RU-486 outweighed the risks and required that it
receive expedited approval.  In other words, the FDA succumbed to
intense political pressure from the Population Council and abortion
advocates to approve the drug.

On its website and in its literature, Danco Laboratories advertises
RU-486 as a “safe” and “easy” abortion option.  However, the U.S.
trials and subsequent market use are to the contrary.  It is neither
safe nor easy. 

read the rest here: http://culture-of-life.org//content/view/590/1/