CWA Says New RU-486 Study Proves Need for Drug’s Suspension      7/28/2005

Washington, D.C. – Concerned Women for America (CWA) called “insufficient” the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent decision to strengthen the language on RU-486’s warning label after reports that two more women have died after taking the abortion pill. Five women in the United States and Canada have died from septic shock after taking RU-486, or mifepristone.

“The FDA allows the death toll to mount and confesses to being ‘baffled’ by the deaths,” said Wendy Wright, CWA’s senior policy director. “Thanks to the hard work of Brown University professor Ralph P. Miech, MD, PhD, we may have the answer to why RU-486 causes harm to women as well as their babies.”

The Annals of Pharmacotherapy will publish Dr. Miech’s study in the September issue, which shows:

During an abortion, mifepristone works by blocking the effects of progesterone, shutting off nutrition to the placenta and fetus. However, Miech points out, the anti-progesterone effects of mifepristone also cause changes in the cervix that allow C. sordellii, a common vaginal bacteria, to enter the cervical canal. C. sordellii thrives in this low-oxygen environment and derives nutrition from the decaying fetal tissue. [Emphasis added.]

Mifepristone also disrupts the immune system, which “impairs the body’s ability to fight off C. sordellii and may help spread the bacteria’s toxic by-products, a combination that sometimes results in widespread septic shock.” The women don’t exhibit the usual warning signs of an infection, mainly, a fever.

“Last week’s FDA announcement on RU-486 mentioned the deaths linked to RU-486, but neglected to release information about near-fatal adverse events,” said Wright. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), CWA received public documents listing over 600 adverse events.

“Women trust that the FDA is doing its job to protect our health,” said Wright. “To continue this trust, the FDA should withdraw its approval of RU-486 before more women die.”

For Information Contact:
Demi Bardsley
(202) 309-5978
media.cwfa.org

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