Posted on 11/16/2004 8:05:58 AM PST by Rutles4Ever
The grieving father of a teenager who died after taking the abortion pill has become a powerful ally of anti-choice activists in the fight to ban the drug. Planned Parenthood says Holly's death is a tragedy but that medical abortion is safe.
SAN FRANCISCO (WOMENSENEWS)--Monty Patterson lost his daughter Holly just a few weeks after her 18th birthday last September. Holly had taken RU-486, an abortion drug that has been used by more than 1 million women worldwide and is widely viewed as a safe alternative to surgical abortion.
But Holly died tragically of a massive infection after taking the drug protocol.
"It was a really horrible death for her," Patterson said. He was with his daughter when she died, having only just learned about the pregnancy. "She had retained placenta and had an incomplete abortion. She could not overcome it."
Holly was a blond young woman who finished high school in three years. She was seven weeks pregnant last September when she and her boyfriend visited a Planned Parenthood near San Francisco to terminate the pregnancy.
At the clinic, she was given RU-486, also called mifepristone, the first of two drugs in the medical abortion protocol approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000.
Mifepristone, which blocks progesterone, the hormone needed to carry a pregnancy to term, has been used by about 350,000 women nationwide and no other American women have died from it, according to Danco Laboratories, the drug's U.S. manufacturer and distributor. Twenty-four hours after taking mifepristone, Holly followed Planned Parenthood's instructions to take a second drug, misoprostol, vaginally at home. Misoprostol induces uterine contractions.
Soon she experienced bleeding and pain. She went to the emergency room of a local hospital four days after the initial visit to Planned Parenthood. There, she was given painkillers and sent home.
Three days later, in the early morning hours of Sept. 17, Holly was admitted to the hospital. She died that afternoon, the same day she was scheduled to return to Planned Parenthood to make sure the abortion had been completed.
The cause of death was septic shock resulting from inflammation of the uterus from a drug-induced abortion, according to the coroner and a state investigation. Both Planned Parenthood and the local hospital were criticized for Holly's care, though experts said that it is extremely rare for such an infection to overwhelm the body so quickly. Patterson did not file a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood or the local hospital.
Medical Abortion Safe
Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president of medical affairs for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said Holly's death is a tragedy but that medical abortion is safe.
INSERT MIND-NUMBINGLY ABSURD QUOTE HERE
"Death is such a rare event associated with medical abortion that it's startling," Cullins said. "But this is a way for the anti-choice extremists to push the agenda of banning all abortions."
Holly's father, who lives in Livermore, Calif., a bucolic suburb east of San Francisco, says he is not taking sides in the political debate and is not out to change anyone's mind about abortion.
"There's no hidden agenda here," Patterson said. "We loved Holly dearly and we miss her every day. If everyone agrees that women's safety and welfare is important then maybe we can change things."
However, he believes the FDA's voluntary system of reporting adverse events harms women because patients and doctors don't have the whole picture of risks associated with drugs. A state investigation found that Holly's death wasn't reported to the FDA by either the hospital where she died or by Planned Parenthood.
"Holly suffered in silence," Patterson said. "I want to make sure no other women go through the same experience."
Earlier this fall, Patterson flew to Washington, D.C., and met with top FDA officials to press his case for mandatory reporting of adverse drug events and a ban on the two medical abortion drugs. He also met with the president's special assistant for domestic policy and his special assistant for legislative affairs.
Reviewing Post-Market Safety
A spokesperson for the FDA said the agency would not comment on the meetings. But recent high-profile cases of adverse drug reactions--such as findings that pain reliever Vioxx increases the risk of heart attacks--is causing the FDA to review how it manages post-market safety data.
While in Washington, Patterson spoke to 600 members of Concerned Women for America, an anti-choice group that filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FDA for all adverse effects related to medical abortion. According to Danco Labs, more than 400 adverse events have been reported to the agency.
Patterson and Concerned Women for America also are seeking an investigation into so-called "off-label" regimens. Medical abortion is typically administered differently from the protocol approved by the FDA. Under the FDA protocol, the second drug is administered at the doctor's office orally. Most women, like Holly, take the drug vaginally at home at a different dosage.
"Abortion clinics are violating the restrictions on these drugs," said Wendy Wright, senior policy director for Concerned Women for America. Dr. Ruth Shaber, director of women's health services at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said the "off-label" protocol is more effective than that approved by the FDA. "Volumes of research follow to show there's a better way of doing things as medicine evolves," Shaber said.
Cullins of Planned Parenthood said the group's actions are "politically motivated."
"Reporting around mifepristone is more stringent than most medications because of the political controversy," she said.
Patterson believes the medical abortion protocol requires women to play their own doctor at home, relying on a fractured health care network of day clinic and emergency room.
"Suddenly ER technicians are supposed to be experts on medical abortion," he said. "There's some really serious problems with the support care network."
Shaber agrees that the health-care system for women receiving an abortion is fractured, but more acceptance of abortion is needed to change that.
Patterson supports "Holly's law," a bill introduced by Rep. Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, and Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, shortly after Holly's death. The law would suspend FDA approval of RU-486, pending an audit by the General Accounting Office. The bill is making its way through the approval process and has dozens of co-sponsors.
Rebecca Vesely is a health care reporter at the Oakland Tribune.
I hope Congress acts on this and bans RU-486...
I second that... RU486 shouldn't be out there.
She Lied to the Doctors when taken to the Emergency Room.
She really deserves a Darwin Award.
RU-486 may be a bad idea, but you sure can't prove it with this imbecile.
SO9
Try Pro-Life activists
Planned Parenthood drones say a lot of dumb-assed things.
Ahhhhhhhhh why can't they just say Pro-Life??
Ping..
Another 350,000 babies slaughtered. What will it take for this country to come to its senses?
Don't want to appear callous, but isn't the abstinence option available before the fact?
This drug is not worth your girlfriend, wife's, sister's, or daughter's life. Its advertised as a safe alternative to surgical abortion but its nothing of the sort. NOW and Planned Parenthood don't want RU-486 banned despite its dangers because they profit from the availability of abortions. Those who care about human life don't have any exterior motives or axes to grind. Our concern is for women's health and safety and their lives should be paramount. If the FDA won't act to take it off the market, Congress should.
Truly sickening...
Let's be clear. The father is still pro-choice; he's just anti-RU486.
Now he is.
First of all, ICK! second of all, the left will look at this as acceptable losses in the battle to keep the murder of the unborn legal. Finally, Do you notice how what Rush said about the NAGS (Nationals Organization of Gals) is so right, they are irrelevant. What he did not go into was that this abortion debate is their last hurrah. You see they want women out of the home and working, when women have babies, they generally want to stay home and raise them. Therefore abortion is the last sacred cow to these ugly lesbians. After Clinton they can't very well whine about workplace harrassment now can they?
My views on abortion (posted elsewhere) usually manage to offend everyone, but I had a few thoughts:
WHERE ARE THE TRIAL LAWYERS???!!! If this were any other product the lawyers would be lining up with class-action suits.
Also, the pervasive use of "choice" for "abortion" is really telling. The absurdity of it. How can someone discuss something when they won't even call it by its name?
Maybe one day we'll hear of the airplane pilot who had to "choice" a takeoff or landing . . .
Does anyone else find it poetic justice that she died because she killed her baby.
Hopefully the pharmacutical companies will find the cost of death to much to handle.
Something is tickling my memory. I think there was an article awhile back about a girl that died and it was posted on FR. Freepers were outraged that the girls Dad was still pro-abortion. If my memory is correct, that makes the above statement a lie.
Hopefully the pharmacutical companies will find the cost of death to much to handle.
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