The religious right is trying to ban RU-486

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Abortion Foes Want RU-486 Pill Pulled

Deaths of Several Women Are Cited

By Marc Kaufman, The Washington Post, May 17, 2006

Opponents of the abortion pill RU-486 are mounting a renewed campaign to force the Food and Drug Administration to pull the drug from the market, arguing that it has proved to be unexpectedly dangerous to women.

The effort focuses on the deaths in recent years of four to eight young women who had taken the medication, and especially the four deaths that involved a common but rarely fatal bacterium, Clostridium sordelli . A congressional subcommittee has scheduled a hearing today on what it called "the unsafe characteristics of RU-486."

But research into those lethal infections has unearthed new information that makes it less clear that complications from the abortion pill, sold as Mifeprex, caused the deaths. Continue

ACLU Urges Congress to Protect Access to Safe, Effective Abortion Pill, Says Lawmakers Must Put Science Before Politics

News release, American Civil Liberties Union, May 17, 2006

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today urged Congress to put science before politics as the House Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources held hearings on the government’s approval of the early-option abortion pill, also known as RU-486.

"The FDA approved the early-option abortion pill only after thoroughly reviewing the medical evidence," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress should not substitute its political views for the science-based decisions of the FDA’s medical experts." Continue

RU-486 Hearings

Family Research Council, Washington Update email, May 18, 2006

"A real slugfest." That's how FRC's Chris Gacek describes yesterday's hearings of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Human Resources into the deaths and injuries associated with the abortion pill, RU-486. That may be an exaggeration, but only a slight one as Chairman Mark Souder (R-IN) clashed verbally with liberal California Congressman Henry Waxman (D). When Waxman implied that Donna Harrison, M.D., of the American Association of Pro-Life Ob/Gyns could not discuss RU-486 objectively, Chairman Souder defended the right of conscientious pro-life Americans to participate fully in these debates. Chairman Souder's question to FDA's Janet Woodcock about 116 bleeding cases requiring transfusions produced the perception of agency indifference when Woodcock appeared to say that the matter required little further review because FDA had always expected that level of hemorrhage. Dr. Harrison put her pro-RU-486 opponents at the hearing on the defensive by presenting a data-rich analysis of the heightened risks of RU-486 abortion when compared with early-pregnancy surgical abortion. Susan Wood and Lisa Rarick, both former FDA employees, argued that the FDA bureaucracy is doing a wonderful job of monitoring RU-486. The claims rang hollow in light of Dr. Harrison's powerful testimony. It is vital to get the word out on the dangers of RU-486 to women. The tired taunt of the pro-choicers ("Pro-life/That's a lie/You don't care if women die!") was turned on its head yesterday. The callous indifference of the pro-abortion side was on full display.

Groups Say Politics Put RU 486 on the Shelf ... and Politics Keeping It There

By Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown, AgapePress, May 16, 2006

A women's pro-life group says pro-abortion forces and the maker of a dangerous abortion pill don't want the product pulled from the market, even while medical evidence against it mounts. Meanwhile, a government corruption watchdog group says it has proof the Clinton administration inappropriately used its political prowess to put the drug on the shelf in the first place.

A public workshop sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was held in Atlanta last week in response to the deaths of more women being attributed to the abortion drug RU 486 or to complications from taking the drug, marketed in the U.S. under the name MifeprexÒ. Scientists exited the meeting in disagreement, some calling for the drug to be pulled from the market entirely, some saying the drug enables a deadly bacterial infection found in the women, and still others declaring such conclusions are at best premature. Continue

Congress Urged to Vote on Holly’s Law (H.R. 1079) to Suspend FDA Approval of RU-486

News release, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Maryland), February 1, 2006

A news conference in Washington, DC today called attention to new research analyzing reports to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of eight women who died and serious injuries to more than 840 others after RU-486 abortions. Congressman Roscoe Bartlett was joined by Congressman Chris Smith and Congressman Jean Schmidt and representatives of more than a dozen pro-life organizations. They urged Congress to approve Holly’s Law, H.R. 1079, a bill that would pull RU-486 from the U.S. market. H.R. 1079 is cosponsored by 79 House members. Senator Jim DeMint has sponsored a companion bill S. 511. Congressman Bartlett said, “I introduced Holly’s Law because I think medicine should help people and not kill them.” Continue