Washington, DC (ProlifeInfo.org) -- According to media reports, RU 486 is expected to begin arriving at clinics this week.
"We're saddened that RU 486 will be released into the U.S. marketplace," stated Laura Echevarria, spokesperson for National Right to Life. "RU 486 takes the life of an unborn child and has the potential to threaten the lives and health of women."
RU 486 is a two-drug process that can only be used in a confirmed pregnancy. Every RU 486 abortion that occurs three or more weeks past fertilization -- which includes the great majority of abortions -- stops a beating heart. Embryology textbooks state the heartbeat begins at 18 to 22 days after conception.
RU 486 was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on September 28 despite evidence indicating the potential for significant and serious side effects. Earlier this summer, concern about these side effects had reportedly caused the FDA to propose a number of restrictions regarding the use of these drugs. On September 28, after a four-month campaign of political pressure by the abortion industry, the FDA dropped many of the restrictions.
Recently, media reports have indicated that the manufacturer of the drug is a company based in China. According to an October 20, 2000, article by Aaron Zitner of the Los Angeles Times, congressional investigators have asserted that "[t]he Chinese company producing the abortion pill RU 486 for the U.S market has been cited by federal regulators for bringing mislabeled and impure drugs into the United States. . . According to FDA records cited . . . a drug produced by Hua Lian [the apparent Chinese manufacturer of RU 486] was detained earlier this year by agency officials . . . because of false or misleading labeling." Another drug, an herbal remedy, was found to be tainted according to a 1998 study by the California Department of Heath Services.
"RU 486 has the potential to be this generation's thalidomide or DES," stated Echevarria. "American women need to know just how dangerous this drug can be."
Even in the controlled conditions of clinical trials, the RU 486 abortion process puts one out of every 100 women in the hospital. Two percent of women will hemorrhage so severely as to require surgery. During the U.S. trials one woman in Iowa nearly bled to death after losing one-half to two-thirds of her blood volume. Doctors in Iowa performed emergency surgery to save her life.
The National Right to Life Committee will be continuing its efforts to educate Americans about the development of the unborn child and about the dangers posed by the RU 486 abortion process.
Source: NRLC Press Release; November 21, 2000
The Heavily Publicized Entry of the Abortion Pill is Not a Medical Breakthrough But a Human Tragedy,' FRC's Morrison Says
Washington, DC (ProlifeInfo.org) -- "The presidential election is not the only uncertainty our nation faces. With the onset of the devastating abortion drug mifepristone, the impact on women's physical and emotional health -- not to mention the number of unborn children who will be killed -- remains to be seen. The heavily publicized entry of the abortion pill is not a medical breakthrough but a human tragedy," Family Research Council's Vice President of Domestic Policy Robert Morrison said Tuesday. "We should not be celebrating its arrival in doctor's offices, but mourning the Clinton administration's decision to go one step further in devaluing human life."
Distribution of the controversial abortion pill mifepristone to doctor's offices began this week. Danco Laboratories, the private firm with rights to market and distribute mifepristone (under the brand name Mifeprex), is charging $270 for the Mifeprex regimen. Danco will receive its product, press reports say, from communist China, a leading human rights violator. The regimen includes not only mifepristone, which cuts off the blood supply to the developing child and uterine lining, but misoprostol, a prostaglandin that induces uterine contractions to deliver a dead child. Mifeprex can be used within the first 49 days of pregnancy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -- violating its own procedures -- rushed through the approval of the drug on September 28, a month before the election.
"With the approval of RU-486, and the promotion of chemical abortions, it is crucial that the pro-life movement redouble its efforts to expose the reality that an individual's life begins at conception," Morrison said. "We must also be more strategic in reaching pregnant women with the love and support they need. Lastly, we need national leaders who will respect life and institute some serious changes at the FDA.
"The next president could stop the abortion pill from leaving too many women and children in its wake."
Source: FRC press Release; November 21, 2000