RU-486 Harming Women
Mifepristone (better known as RU-486) continues to be distributed and sold to unsuspecting women and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ignores the evidence showing that the drug has caused multiple deaths and hundreds of life-threatening and extremely serious medical problems.
Dr. Ralph P. Miech of Brown University, though, has come to the forefront in discovering and publicizing the medical problems caused by the drug. His study results were recently published in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy showing the exact causes of why women and their babies are harmed by RU-486.
His study shows that RU-486 works in two ways:
-
It stops the production of progesterone and shuts off nutrition to the baby.
-
The drug causes contractions to expel the baby from the mother’s body.
But the drug also causes changes to the cervix and allows the growth of C. sordelli (a common vaginal bacteria which thrives in a low-oxygen environment while feeding off the decaying fetal tissue left in the mother).
At the same time, RU-486 impairs the immune system and decreases the body’s ability to fight off the C. sordelli bacteria. This reaction may even help the spread of the bacteria’s toxic byproducts through the bloodstream, causing septic shock, which can be life-threatening.
Unfortunately, women infected with the C. sordelli bacteria and septic shock often are diagnosed too late, as they usually show no signs of the infection until it is out of control.
The FDA re-investigated the adverse effects of RU-486 (mifepristone) and on July 19, it finally issued a public health advisory on the risk of sepsis or blood infection when using mifepristone, but only now after women have died during or after its use.
While the FDA was investigating mifepristone, the drug-maker, Danco Laboratories, admitted that five deaths had occurred in women (recorded by the FDA) who were using mifepristone, but they denied the drug was the cause.
Evidence has shown that about 600 women have experienced side effects, sometimes severe, from use of the drug, ‘“The FDA allows the death toll to mount and confesses to being ‘baffled’ by the deaths,” says Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America’s executive vice president. “Thanks to the hard work of Miech, we may have the answer to why RU-486 causes harm to women as well as their babies.”
See the Sources: “Leading Researcher Proves RU-486 Causes Septic Shock Deaths,” 28 July 2005, http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05072802.html; “CWA Says New RU-486 Study Proves Need for Drug’s Suspension,” 30 August 2005, http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8626/MEDIA/life/; Steven Ertelt, “Abortion Drug Hurt Over 600 Women in Addition to Five Deaths,” LifeNews.com, 28 July 2005, http://www.lifenews.com/natl490.html
Bush Chooses Sauerbrey for Population Post
We are delighted to report that President Bush has named Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey, who has impeccable pro-life credentials, as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration.
As the U.S. Representative on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women since 2001, she has faithfully carried out the President’s pro-life policies in an environment hostile to pro-life, pro-family views.
Most recently she orchestrated a successful effort to reaffirm that the 1994 Cairo declaration would not be used to overturn laws against abortion in dozens of countries. “I think one of the things that has been very clearly established that should give a lot of comfort to concerned Americans is that virtually every country said we interpret it the same as you — we interpret that these are issues of national sovereignty,” Sauerbrey said recently.
In her new role, she will direct the Department of State‘s humanitarian efforts to provide protection, assistance, and sustainable solutions for refugees and victims of conflict and to advance U.S. population and migration policies with a nearly $1 billion annual budget. While we at PRI continue to work toward the elimination of all population control programs, which will take congressional action, it will be good to have someone sympathetic to our goals to ensure that the current policies, as long as they exist, are interpreted in as pro-life a fashion as possible.
Like any other pro-lifer, Ambassador Sauerbrey’s nomination will presumably be challenged by radical pro-abortion senators like Barbara Boxer of California. We will be there in a show of support when it is time for her confirmation hearings. And it will be important for people of pro-life sentiment to write and call their senators to urge speedy action.
See the Source: White House Personal Announcement, 31 August, 2005. http://wvw.whitehousc.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050831-5
