RU-486 Side Effects

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It sounds so easy … take a pill and you abort.

“Easy, safe, cheap, and it benefits women.” This is how RU-486 (mifepristone), known as the abortion pill, is being described. 

Yet, this is an issue of life and death. You must look beyond the words to find the truth. 

Easy?

When a woman takes RU-486 she experiences severe cramping, nausea, vomiting and bleeding. Lester Hyman, a spokesman for the manufacturer of RU-486, Roussel-Uclaf, admitted “there is considerable pain with the procedure.” 

The emotional distress, however, may have even more impact. Rather than being “over with” in a few minutes (as in a surgical abortion) this abortion could last for over a week. 

When the woman finally does abort, she will expel a tiny dead human being – her baby. There will be no denying what is really aborted! 

Edouard Sakiz, the former president of Roussel-Uclaf admits that RU-486 abortions involve “an appalling psychological ordeal.”

So much for “easy”.

Safe?

In July 1996, an FDA advisory panel heard the testimony of Dr. Mark Louviere, telling of his experience treating a woman who had taken RU-486 for an abortion. She had lost 1/2 to 2/3 of her blood. She is just one of an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 women a year who will suffer complications from this drug. This is based on the anticipated rate of complications by The Population Council, who hold the patent for RU-486. They anticipate a 1% to 2% complication rate, including cardiac arrest, hemorrhage, and incomplete abortions. If this figure is projected on the 1.5 million abortions done in this country each year, that percentage represents an alarming number of women suffering complications every year. “Safe” is dangerous for women.

Cheap?

In Europe, where RU-486 abortions are common, the costs are the same as surgical abortions because they require more staff, careful monitoring and three or more visits to the clinic or hospital. Add to this the complication that one in 10 women fail to abort and must undergo a surgical abortion anyway. “Cheap” just became very expensive!

Benefits Women?

RU-486 is not about benefiting women. It’s about population control. The manufacturer, Roussel Uclaf, was very hesitant to apply for FDA approval. They knew this drug created health complications that could lead to expensive lawsuits. Then the Clinton administration, because of their commitment to control of world population, stepped in to help get RU-486 approved. 

Unable to convince Roussel Uclaf to begin FDA approval proceedings, a deal was negotiated where Roussel Uclaf would donate the patent for RU-486 to The Population Council. It was further negotiated that RU-486 would be able to attain FDA approval with only $8 million in drug testing trials instead of the normal $100 million or more. RU-486 was “fast tracked” through the testing process. 

Most drugs go through rigorous and lengthy testing by the FDA before gaining approval to be prescribed to the general public. Instead of six years or more, which is typical for most drugs, the length of testing for RU-486 was reduced to six months. Why the corner cutting and big push to get this abortion drug into use?

RU-486 is an easy way to “export” abortions to third world countries where abortions are not legal. When a drug has FDA approval, third world countries rely on this approval as an assurance that it is safe for their population. What is good for America surely must be good for them, they reason. The reality is, RU-486 will be used in third world countries as an easy to administer method of abortion. Many of these third world countries do not allow abortion because of religious or cultural restrictions. Unlike a surgical abortion, RU-486 could be easily administered without a woman’s understanding or consent. Does this sound far fetched?

A documentary entitled The Human Laboratory, aired by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) exposed how population controllers had tested Norplant birth control inserts in a similar manner on the women of Bangladesh without telling them the risks or possible side effects. Since then, Norplant has proven to be dangerous, and in some cases deadly, when used. American women experienced the same problems Bangladeshi women did. Now, in America, women are suing Norplant manufacturers in several class-action suits. The Bangladeshi women have no such system of justice.

The same BBC documentary reported that women in the Philippines and Mexico have also been used unknowing as guinea pigs for a new experimental pregnancy vaccine. According to human rights activists, it has been administered, without the consent or knowledge of female patients, as a “piggyback” vaccine in a series of tetanus vaccine programs. The women became suspicious when they noticed that those women who had received the “tetanus vaccine” were miscarrying at an unusually high rate. The lab tests confirmed that the “tetanus vaccine” had indeed been “laced” with HCG vaccine, which prevents women from carrying their pregnancies to term.

In reality, American women taking RU-486 will be just as much “guinea pigs” as women from the third world countries. Their health and life will be put at risk for a drug that has not been thoroughly tested, has been “fast tracked” through the FDA approval process and is known to bring about life threatening complications. American women are being used as a “springboard” to get this abortion drug into developing countries where it can be easily administered without a woman’s informed consent.

RU-486 is not easy, safe or cheap. Nor is it something that will benefit women. But it is being promoted this way because this drug comes with its own agenda. It is the “answer” for population controllers and abortion advocates. The question is, how high a price will women be forced to pay in physical complications and emotional devastation?

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