Headlines trumpet two more deaths related to probable off-label use of RU-486 (Mifepristone), known as the abortion pill morning-after pill, and three politicians immediately renewed calls for legislation ending its sale in the United States.
The reporter fails to put death risk in context; the politicians are grandstanding to core constituencies. The FDA, prudently, reminds practitioners of approved dosing regimes.
According to the AP story, more than 1.5 million women have taken the pill in Europe; no deaths reported. Planned Parenthood estimates that RU-486 has been used in the US 560,000 times since 2000.
Four California women had died prior to these latest deaths. That yields a death rate of 1.07 in 100,000. The death risk from a legal abortion is <1 in 100,000.
However, the risk of the mother dying in childbirth, according to the CDC, is 12.1 per 100,000 live births. In other words, although both risks are low, the death risk due to carrying to term is 12 times as great as from taking RU-486. So, shall we outlaw pregnancy? Thought not. [Note: the AP article - near the end - attributes to unnamed FDA officials a risk "similar" to childbirth.]
Proposed Federal Legislation
A few facts about relative risks didn't stop Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) or Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) from renewing calls for legislation to "suspend" sales while the GAO reviews the FDA approval process.
Bartlett has introduced HR 1079 and wants to "pull this dangerous abortion drug from the U.S. market." DeMint has introduced a companion bill, S. 511: "This drug should never have been approved, and it must be suspended immediately."
History
In 2000, the FDA approved RU-486 for terminating pregnancy up to 49 days after the beginning of the latest menstrual cycle. Both bills call for a review of the FDA process, but neither has had a hearing; both were referred to respective committees in March 2005. The legislation is known as "Holly's Law" - named for California woman Holly Patterson, 18, who died after taking RU-486 in 2003.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
Thanks for setting out the sensible facts!
2 - Christina
Four of the seven US women to die got their abortion drugs at Planned Parenthood, and two at National Abortion Federation facilities. Only Brenda Vise, the woman with an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, got hers at a fly-by-night abortion mill.
If this is the care women get at the "best" facilities, what is happening to the women at the seedy places?
3 - Arch Conservative
Why is it that Planned Parenthood and Naral and thier ilk insist anyone whose is pro-life is anti women's health?
Is abortion the only health issue women must deal with?
Heart disease affects and ultimately kills more women every year than so called back alley abortions. Why doesn't planned parenthood have such for heart disease.
Although I am pro-life I get what some of the pro-choice crowd has to say. No man or woman should be told by the state what to do with thier own body. But the pro-choice doesn't get or doesn't care about what we are saying. When a woman becomes pregnant it ceases to be just her body or her life that is concerned.
Sometimes we must refuse to make choices just because they would make our lives easier. Sometimes we must think outside ourselves and do what is best for another and I think that abortion is one of those cases.
4 - Kathy
Note: I erroneously characterized this as the morning-after pill ... which I have corrected.
Natalie: thank you.
Christina: As far as I can tell, no women have died in Europe - and they've had access to the drug since the early 80s. Note that no facility has had multiple fatalities -- and the risk of death is extremely low (lower than childbirth and about the same as surgical abortion).
Hopefully, researchers can determine if there is anything "in common" between the women. The NE Journal of Medicine report on the four American women (not the entopic pregnancy) found nothing "in common" except California.
Arch Conservative: I'm not sure what you mean in your first sentence. I've certainly said nothing about opponents of abortion being "anti women's health."
As you note, heart disease is the #1 killer of women ... but more federal dollars (Congressional purse strings) go to examining men's heart disease than women's. Perhaps the better target for your frustration is your Congressmen.
Kathy
5 - Arch Conservative
Kathy, my first sentence was a reference to the tactics used by groups that stand to make money off of abortion like Planned Parenthood, Naral, Now etc....
They label everyone who isn't a die hard pro-choice supporter "anti women's health" as if abortion was the only women's health issue and all pro-lifers had some secret desire to harm the health of American women.
I was not aware of the difference in funding for reasearch regarding heart disease. I would have assumed that heart disease is a gender neutral disease and all of the research doen benefits both sexes.
I know that several female specific ailments such as breast cancer get more funding than certain male ailments such as prostate cancer.
I don't think that sex should be a factor though in determining funding. What seems most logical is dedicating funding to all ailments regardless of sex but reserve the most for those ailments that harm the most.
6 - Kathy
Hi, Arch Conservative:
Thanks for the clarification.
yes, most research on heart disease has been done specifically on men. researchers didn't want to have to deal with the variance that hormones cause.
that's why we had the big NIH Women's Health Initiative study ... but even it was seriously flawed. A - the only drug tested as estrogen-derived-from-horse-urine (no bioidential estrogens were tested) and B - the median age was mid-60s! What women do you know who pass _thru_ menopause in their 50s, use no estrogen, and then decide at 63 (or something) that +now+ is the time!
The reporting about it sucks, too. I started working on a piece back in January (I think) on one of the lastest bits (hip fractures, IIRC) ... but family stuff interferred and I never finished it.
I have a few things about the WHI study at http://www.hotflashed.org/
Kathy