New statistics released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) show that women who use the abortion pill, RU-486, are in danger.
The Family Research Council (FRC) worked this summer to pressure the FDA to release of the latest figures on deaths and serious side effects from the abortion pill. Those records, released in mid-July, show that of the 1.52 million women who used the drug through the end of April 2011, 14 women died, and 2,207 experienced adverse effects. But FRC's Jeanne Monahan says that is probably not all.
"We think that the deaths are probably pretty accurate, because it's hard to get around reporting a death," she notes. "But, it is possible that in terms of the hospitalization, the infections, etcetera, I think even the FDA estimates that only about a tenth of adverse events are actually reported to them."
That includes significant blood loss and infections, some of which are severe and require hospitalization. Also, in many cases, those who dispense the drug do not follow FDA recommendations.
"Planned Parenthood routinely gives out the drug at a much lower dose -- like a third of the dose," Monahan reports. "Another off-label use is using it past the amount of time that the FDA has approved it for. So, they've approved it for 49 days, [but] Planned Parenthood clinics routinely give this up to 63 days of a baby's development. So that becomes problematic."
That means women are in danger. So Monahan wants to remind people that "abortion is a deeply invasive procedure, and that the abortion pill in particular is very hard on women, in some cases resulting in death."
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
