Posted on 11/25/2003 7:03:55 PM PST by webber
ISSUE: U.S. Representatives Jim DeMint (R-SC), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) recently introduced the "RU-486 Suspension and Review Act of 2003," also known as "Holly*s Law."
The legislation (H.R. 3453) now has 69 cosponsors in the House, including Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). Senator Brownback is introducing a companion bill in the Senate.
Monty and Helen Patterson, the parents of 18-year-old Holly Patterson who recently died after taking RU-486, have written a letter of support for the bill, stating "We will actively support *Holly*s Law* in Congress by Reps. DeMint, Bartlett and Senator Brownback to suspend and review the abortion drug RU-486... As parents, we cannot allow our beautiful Holly*s horrible death to be in vain.
RU-486 has caused serious injury and has been implicated in the deaths of other young women. Now it has killed our daughter... The RU-486 abortion drug should not be either a Pro Life or Pro Choice issue. The most primary concern here must be the health and welfare of our children and young women."
"What makes Holly Patterson*s untimely death even more tragic is that it was preventable," Rep. DeMint said. "When the Clinton administration rushed approval of RU-486 in its waning days in 2000, many Members of Congress knew that the FDA cut corners and compromised safety. We should not have to wait for another death before Congress suspends FDA*s approval of RU-486 and conducts an independent review of the irregular procedures the FDA used to push this drug onto the market."
At least three other women have died from RU-486 in North America and at least 13 have required blood transfusions due to excessive blood loss. In 5-8 percent of cases, RU-486 causes severe complications. Danco, the drug*s manufacturer, has reported at least 400 adverse events since RU-486 was approved.
"If airplanes were as dangerous as RU-486 no reasonable woman would ever fly. This deadly drug needs to be grounded immediately and safety procedures need to be reviewed before more women are put at risk," Rep. DeMint said, observing that a woman is 200 times more likely to be injured or killed from RU-486 than in an airplane crash. "People on both sides of the abortion debate should not be distracted from the fact that the health and safety of American women is being compromised by RU-486 safety guidelines that are more lenient than in France.""
As the parents of Holly Patterson wrote so eloquently, we need to end "the conspiracy of silence" surrounding this drug. Too often, supporters of RU-486 have sacrificed the health and safety of women to achieve greater access to abortion.
Monty and Helen Patterson wrote in their open letter to the media, "We have lost our daughter, Holly, but we can still help to prevent this terrible tragedy from happening in other families." It*s time for Congress to act before more women needlessly suffer in silence.
ACTION ITEM: Even though the FDA received reports of over 400 adverse effects from RU-486 and regardless of the death of women during the European trials of the drug, the FDA caved in to political pressure during the liberal Clinton administration. As a result, Holly Patterson died. This legislation is designed to protect the health and safety of women and force Congress to exercise its proper oversight role over the FDA. Go to our website below to send a FREE message, urging your legislators to pass "Holly*s Law", before more women die: SEND A FREE MESSAGE
NOTE: Be sure to forward this message to everyone you know who wants to help urge the passage of this long-overdue and desperately-needed legislation to suspend RU-486.
Thank you!
Conservative Alerts
I understand the worry, and can't say I disagree with it. But life is always full of tradeoffs. If using the force of government to prevent sale of a drug prevents some people from dying who would have died, but ends up causing others to die who would not have done so, is it a good trade?
Don't worry; there are still enough other issues the abortion industry has lied about. The facts that abortion causes sterility and increases the chance of breast cancer are two other lies people learn the truth of the hard way, and the fact that a human being dies is a truth that is very hard to hide from.
In a college biology class I took several years ago, the teacher showed us a film taken INSIDE the womb (I don't know how the camera got there), recording various time points during development. One girl in the class had a VERY distraught look on her face while watching the film. I wonder how many abortions that teacher might have prevented, by showing his students the reality of life within the womb?
No, but what does non-access to RU-486 have to do with causing persons to die who would not have done so?
Cordially,
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Please show me an instance where a woman would "die" because she doesn't have access to R-486? Are you trying to say that other contraceptives do NOT work? Or are you saying that some women at the point of "becoming" pregnant is now is serious jeopardy of dying from this pregancy at the time of conception or nearly afterward? RU-486 does not stop the fertilization process of the ovum by the sperm. It only prevents the zygote (fertilized egg - which now contains all the chromosome information of a human being) from implanting itself to the uterus wall, thus will be flushed out. So please, give me an example where RU-486 is the "ONLY" remedy to save a womans life.
Basically, my personal belief is that if conservatives allow it, RU-486 will become a very bad trojan horse for the abortion-rights advocates. If a woman goes into an abortion mill for a surgical abortion, the workers there can ensure that she never sees what's really going on. Rather harder for them to do that if the woman expels the embryo/fetus at home.
If RU-486 is legal, then initially there may be more people using it than if it's not (I see no reason to believe a ban on RU-486 would be more effective than a ban on cocaine). If such people have severely unfavorable experiences, however, they are more likely to come forward if RU-486 is legal than if it's illegal. I would expect that the effects of such people coming forward would soon outweigh the initial difference in usage caused by legality.
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