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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Even some abortion doctors are questioning the safety of RU 486 in the wake of more deaths by women using the drug.
The United States Food and Drug Administration announced March 17 it had learned of two more deaths of women after taking RU 486. At least seven women have died in the United States after using the two-step drug regimen since RU 486 went on the market in September 2000. The FDA announced in July 2005 that four California women who underwent chemical abortions had died from an uncommon and lethal bacterial infection known as Clostridium sordellii.
Well-known abortion doctor Warren Hern told The New York Times in an April 1 article that the latest deaths show chemical abortions are far riskier than surgical ones. He said pills “are a lousy way to perform an abortion.”
“I think surgery should be the procedure of choice,” said Hern, who does abortions in Denver.
Peter Bours, a Portland, Ore., abortion doctor, told The Times, “None of these women should be dying; it’s shocking.”
Bours is reconsidering whether to offer RU 486 to women, according to the newspaper.
The reported risk of death is slightly more than one in 100,000 chemical abortions, about 10 times that of surgical abortions, according to The Times. It is unclear, however, how accurate the reported death rate for women is with either kind of abortion.
Some abortion doctors have even acknowledged that the foes of RU 486 have a point.
“The complications associated with RU 486 far exceed the complications of surgical abortion,” Damon Stutes, an abortion doctor in Reno, Nev., told The Times. While he is uncomfortable in agreeing with pro-life advocates, he said, “But the truth is the truth.”
The recently reported deaths have renewed calls for Congress to require the FDA to pull RU 486 from the market. The RU 486 Suspension and Review Act, H.R. 1079 in the House and S. 511 in the Senate, would suspend the drug’s sale while a review of the FDA’s approval of the pill is conducted. Congress has shown little desire to get involved in the controversy, however. The House of Representatives bill has 79 cosponsors, while the Senate version has only 11.
RU 486, also known as mifepristone, is used as the first part of a process normally occurring in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone causes the lining of the uterus to release the embryonic child. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken two days after mifepristone and causes the uterus to contract, expelling the baby.
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