'Holly's Law' makes a return to Capitol Hill

Contra Costa Times ^ | 3/8/5 | Bonita Brewer

[SmithL]

The controversial RU-486 abortion pill, which 18-year-old Holly Patterson of Livermore took a week before dying of a massive infection in September 2003, would be at least temporarily pulled from U.S. markets under federal legislation reintroduced last week.

Republican lawmakers have reintroduced "Holly's Law," which would suspend Food and Drug Administration approval of RU-486 until the federal Government Accountability Office scrutinizes the process by which the drug came to U.S. markets in 2000.

Backers of Holly's Law contend RU-486 was approved by the FDA under political pressure from the Clinton administration under a "fast-track" review process normally reserved for drugs treating life-threatening illnesses, such as AIDS or cancer.

"The FDA abused an avenue reserved for only the most life-threatening situations in order to approve this drug," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "Too many questions remain as to its safety, and three women dying is three too many."

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., who reintroduced an identical bill in the House, said RU-486 has "seriously injured dozens of other pregnant women" in the United States.

A death last year -- the third reported death of a U.S. woman who had taken RU-486 -- prompted the FDA to issue stronger safety warnings to doctors and consumers. But it did not conclude that RU-486 caused the deaths. And it noted that "rare" complications from RU-486, such as bleeding and bacterial infections, also can occur from miscarriages, surgical abortions and even childbirth.

Monty Patterson, Holly's father, said Monday he supports the DeMint-Bartlett legislation.

"It's important not to stop asking questions about how and why the FDA approved RU-486," said Monty Patterson, a Livermore resident. "The safety, health and welfare of women should never be compromised. Holly has already paid the ultimate price."

Time ran out on the original legislation, submitted during the last session of Congress. Bartlett spokeswoman Lisa Wright said Monday it will likely get close attention in light of recent publicity about FDA approval of other drugs now deemed to have risky side effects, such as pain relievers Vioxx and Celebrex.

"It demonstrates there is a problem, that there is a safety issue," Wright said.

RU-486 supporters say the section of law under which the FDA approved the drug was not intended to fast-track anything but rather to allow the FDA to impose additional restrictions on the drug's distribution.

Dr. Eric Schaff, who serves on the board of the National Abortion Federation, said although RU-486 was approved in France in 1991, clinical studies were delayed in the United States "for political reasons" until 1994.

"There was a tremendous amount of information on this medication from almost 1 million women in Europe," Schaff said. "It was very much studied, and it didn't get finally approved in the U.S. until 2000. This medication relied on more experience and research than most drugs to get approved.

"Almost 400,000 women have used mifepristone (RU-486) in the U.S. safely, which supports the FDA's decision to approve it in 2000. It's an incredibly safe medication."

[Joan912]

It's an incredibly safe medication.

Sure it's incredibly safe except for the women it has killed or injured and the unborn children it has killed. RU-486 was rammed through the FDA approval process, ignoring the damning and bloody evidence from trials in Europe. The Clintonistas were seemingly too happy to get this awful drug on the market in the US - no big surprise considering the pro-abortion nazis in that administration, not to mention the potential money to be made. The company which provides the major components for RU-486 is the same one which provided gas for the Nazi death chambers...

[MHGinTN]

It always perplexes me to witness someone so given to serving Evil (the clintons and especially sinkEmperor Clinton) and the 'success' such an servant of the Evil One enjoys in life. Bill Clinton mouthed all sorts of deceptive phrases, but when it came down to not rushing this drug through or signing into law measures to stop the heinous partial birth abortion, the democrap tendency to politicize everything for democrap empowerment was followed. Since Clinton's first veto of a partial birth abortion ban placed on his 'presidential' desk, more than 45,000 alive babies aged 16 weeks to 40 weeks have been slaughtered ... and he could have stopped that then since democraps had signed onto passage and the nation was at a revulsion consensus the subpreme court would not have ignored. Democrats, the lying, deceit-filled party of serial killing empowerment.

[GovernmentShrinker]

No law inthe world can save people from the stupidity this 18 year old woman displayed. Went to the emergency room once, lied about what was wrong with her, and left. Went home, and when her father found her on the bathroom floor, crying and writhing in pain, she lied again -- and departed to spend the night at her boyfriend's home.

The ultimate result she got was exactly the same result as that college student a couple of years ago, who died in a dorm bathroom after a natural miscarriage -- she hadn't told anybody she was pregnant, and was still determined not to tell anybody even when she was miscarrying and hemorrhaging severely.

Stupidity kills.