Posted on 04/01/2006 12:06:31 AM PST by neverdem
Abortion rights advocates once hoped that RU-486 would prove at least as safe as surgical abortions and largely end the abortion wars by making access widely available and very private.
But in the wake of reports in March that two more women had died after taking abortion pills, some doctors say they are increasingly uneasy about prescribing them.
"None of these women should be dying; it's shocking," said Dr. Peter Bours, an abortion provider in Portland, Ore., who is rethinking whether to offer pill-based, or medical, abortions.
Dr. Warren Hern, a provider in Denver, said the latest reports demonstrated that abortions by RU-486, or Mifeprex, were far riskier than surgical ones. "I think surgery should be the procedure of choice," Dr. Hern said. Pills, he said, "are a lousy way to perform an abortion."
When followed up by another drug, misoprostol, Mifeprex induces a miscarriage that generally occurs within two weeks. To some women, this process seems more natural than surgery, and the expulsion of the fetus often takes place at home, which some also prefer.
But the number of women who have died in the United States after taking Mifeprex has now reached six, according to reports received by the Food and Drug Administration; another has died in Canada.
The drug has been used in more than 560,000 abortions in this country, so the reported risk of death is a bit more than one in 100,000. Some deaths may have gone unreported, meaning the real risk may be even higher.
By contrast, the reported risk of death associated with surgical abortion is one in a million, according to studies — one-tenth as high.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wasn't the risk of heart disease from Celebrex 1 in 1 million?
They yanked Celebrex off the market pretty quickly.
In these cases, I would LOVE to see a massive wrongful death lawsuit against Planned Parenthood!
Go, shysters, go!
I'm worried about its safety too. I think it does a lot of damage to an unborn baby.
HELLO..are you with the real world? RU486 aborts the baby. That is not just "damage" but death.
Of course the NYT got the number wrong too. There have been seven deaths of women in USA from using RU486 and one in Canada that equals eight, not six women's deaths.
They yanked Celebrex off the market pretty quickly
They yanked Vioxx, not Celebrex. I don't know what the numbers were, but a more precise way to ask the question is what was the risk of having a myocardial infarction in the presence of significant atherosclerotic coronary arterial disease? Unfortunately, the most common way of appreciating significant atherosclerotic coronary arterial disease is after the fact.
IMHO, Vioxx, Celebrex, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs, exert their effect by how they effect platelet aggregation and clot formation.
Safety for whom? It already kills half of the patients to whom it's administered, cause it's a two for one deal. When Mom gets it, baby gets it too, though only the baby is supposed to die. I guess the Docs are getting bent out of shape that in more cases, Mom is dying too, and they can't have that!
Yeah, where are all those Tort lawyers when you really need one?
"But in the wake of reports in March that two more women had died after taking abortion pills, some doctors say they are increasingly uneasy about prescribing them."
Damned nice of them to be concerned. Wish they'd be a little more concerned about the children who are dying as a result of moms taking this pill, too.
It's easier to conceal the abortion deaths due to surgery.
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