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PR: BPAS putting Women's Lives at Risk
09.08.2004
Youth Defence today warned against any move by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service that would allow women to take home the abortion drug RU 486. Eoghan de Faoite, spokesperson for Youth Defence said, “Pro-abortionists continually claim that the abortion drug will make abortions easier, safer and cheaper. This is entirely untrue. A chemical abortion can take more than a week to complete; it has resulted in the deaths of many women and is more expensive than a surgical abortion”
The RU 486 is an abortion pill that kills an unborn child up to nine weeks gestation. By then a child can have a heart beat, an intact nervous system and brain waves. The drug is taken in three doses and it works by inhibiting the hormone progesterone which is necessary for maintaining a pregnancy. This results in the expulsion of the lining of a woman’s uterus along with a tiny dead human being – her baby. Eoghan de Faoite continued, “The procedure itself is extremely horrific and is very traumatic for a woman. Even Edourd Sazik, former president of Roussel-Uclaf who manufactures the drug, admits that RU-486 involves an “appalling psychological ordeal”.
The abortion drug is also highly dangerous for women. Even under medical supervision there have been a number of very serious after effects from using the drug, including maternal mortality. In March of this year, a Swedish woman died after being administered RU 486. In January 2004 the British government revealed that two women died as a result of taking the controversial pill. In September of 2003, Holly Patterson an 18 year old from California, died from septic shock after taking the pill. The actual number of deaths is probably much higher than this due to underreporting. For the women who do survive there are a host of complications they can develop from using this drug. The Population Council who hold the patent for RU-486 anticipate complications ranging from cardiac arrest, haemorrhage, and septic shock to incomplete abortions and the retention of baby body parts.
Eoghan de Faoite concluded, “It normally takes the Food and Drug Administration six or more years to approve a drug. The abortion pill was approved in six months. Women’s health and lives are being put at risk by a drug that has not been thoroughly tested and has been fast-tracked through the FDA by political pressures. We call on the British Pregnancy Advisory Service to immediately withdraw from the sale of this drug and to abandon all plans to make it available to take home”
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