Plus related stories:

Pregnant teen's death under investigation
Daughter had taken RU-486, father said

31st Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
LIFE Coalition sponsors essay contest

Helpful Links--Post Abortion Syndrome

Legislators try to halt use of RU-486 after woman dies

Bush signs legislation to ban partial birth abortion

Effects of the abortion pill--interview with
Joel Brind, Ph.D., steroid biochemist

 

RU-486: A RETURN TO BARBARISM
It represents "perhaps the greatest threat yet to life,
liberty and the family in this generation."

By James Horsley

Suppose you were watching the following advertisement. Would you consider this true to life or a warped version of Saturday Night Live?

A woman is seen bent over a toilet bowel. The water is red and she reaches into it and pulls out a small object, goes to the sink and washes it off. The camera zooms in on a life-less form, a tiny, inch-long human being, with visible arms, feet, eyes, a nose tip, tongue and all major body organs.

As she inspects the form, she begins to cry. The voice of the announcer is heard, saying: "Be in the shoes of a mother, doctor, nurse, executioner, mortician, pall-bearer, psychologist, and spiritual counselor all at the same time. Take RU-486, the abortion pill, for a simple, do-it-yourself, at-home abortion. Brought to you by the same folks that gave you Zyclon-B, the World War II genocide gas."

Tragically, this would not be satire, but a real-life scene that could easily apply to 225,000 women today in America, for that is the number of women who have taken the newly FDA approved abortion pill, RU-486, which is usually taken between the fifth and seventh week of pregnancy. The announcer's voice would be the spoken reality of the situation. If "reality TV" dared to show reality, this is what you would see.

According to a nurse at a Fargo hospital, a fetus at two months indeed has arms, feet, eyes, a nose tip, tongue and all major body organs. It is also capable of movement and has a beating heart.

The administration of RU-486, a man-made steroid, was approved in September 2000 by the FDA as an abortion inducer. It works by starving the fetus of hormones necessary for growth, forcing a miscarriage. The site of the abortion by miscarriage is wherever the event takes place--in a clinic, at work, at home, at a restaurant, wherever the expectant mother may abort.

The nurse was asked recently by this writer, "Doesn't that mean that a woman has to be essentially her own mortician, pall-bearer, and psychologist?"

"I don't know how women can cope with this," was her answer.

A woman submitting to the chemical abortion often does not have a doctor or nurse at hand at the time the killed fetus is expelled and can typically be alone in a bathroom. This can lead to a number of complications.

Parts of the unexpelled, dead fetus can remain in the womb, causing infection. This is what is believed to happen to California teenager, Holly Patterson, who lived with her father in Livermore, but did not tell him of the pregnancy. According to her father, Monty Patterson, a home-builder, his daughter had visited Planned Parenthood in Hayward and without his knowledge took the prescribed pill RU-486 three days later. The next day, she began to have cramps. Three days after that, her boyfriend rushed her to the hospital because she was in acute pain, bleeding and unable to walk. She was administered painkillers and released. That night she went back to the hospital and died the next afternoon.

"The doctor told me that she hadn't aborted all of the fetus, and she had fragments left in her, and she had a massive systemic infection and went into septic shock," her father said.

Typically, RU-486 is administered between the fifth and seventh week of pregnancy, and sometimes up to the ninth week. On a second visit, prostaglandin is given to induce contractions of the uterus. On the third visit, the woman is examined to determine if the poisoned fetus has been killed by the ingestion of the lethal chemical and if so, if it has been completely expelled.

According to some studies, 35 percent of women do not return for their follow-up appointments. This can lead to life-threatening situations, including death.

If the fetus has not been expelled, the women is scheduled for a surgical abortion. According to some medical reports, the failure rate of the pill is between five and ten percent. If the fetus survives the administration of the chemical (also called mifepristone) and if the mother decides not to return for the third visit, malformation is a major risk, since RU-486 disrupts the baby's development at a critical stage--when arms, legs, and other organs are forming.

RU stands for Roussel Uclaf, the manufacturer of the RU-486 pill. Roussel Uclaf is owned by Hoechst A.G., one of the several corporations spun off after World War II from the giant I.G. Farben chemical firm, the firm that supplied Hitler with Zyklon B gas, used to kills Jews in the Third Rich death camps.

Rousell-Uclaf, fearing litigation, requires a women to sign an agreement to a surgical abortion. It is unclear what would be done if a woman, after taking the pill, decided to carry the baby to term. Would she be required to submit to a surgical abortion? And if the baby was born malformed as the result of RU-486, could the mother sue?

The former president of Roussel Uclaf, Edouard Sakiz, said that the pill represents "an appalling psychological ordeal." In Europe, support groups have been formed for women who have undergone the procedure.

"These new drugs are a frightening throwback to barbarism and an ominous harbinger of the deterioration of the health of women and children worldwide," Bernard N. Nathanson, M.D., commented in "RU-486 Is a Health Hazard," July-August 1994 Christian American. "They represent perhaps the greatest threat yet to life, liberty and the family in this generation."

Human life has now achieved the same status as pests, and the same fate, pesticides. And mothers have become the lonely exterminators of their own children--all in the privacy of their own home.

The L.I.F.E. Coalition urges its supporters to contact their Representatives or Senators, as well as write letters to the editor of their local newspaper, and call for the outlawing of this lethal drug.

Pregnant teen's death under investigation
Daughter had taken RU-486, father said

By Julian Guthrie, Chronicle staff writer, Friday, September 19, 2003

The Alameda County coroner's office is investigating the case of an 18- year-old (California) East Bay woman who died Wednesday, days after reportedly taking the abortion pill RU-486.

The victim's father told The (S.F.) Chronicle that his 18-year-old daughter had gotten a prescription for RU-486 at a Planned Parenthood office in Hayward on Sept. 10 to end her seven-week pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood issued a statement Thursday night that it was working with the young woman's family to look into the cause of death.

"A patient who recently sought health care services at a Planned Parenthood health care center died yesterday at a hospital in Pleasanton," said Dian Harrison, chief executive officer and president of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. "The cause of death is unknown at this time.... We extend our deepest sympathy to the family. We wish them strength and support in this tough time."

Monty Patterson said his daughter Holly Patterson had visited Planned Parenthood in Hayward last Wednesday and on Saturday had begun taking drugs prescribed to end her pregnancy. Patterson's daughter lived with him in Livermore and did not tell him about the pregnancy, he said.

"On Sunday, she was crying and crying, and she told me she was having cramps, that she had a bad period," said Pattterson, a home builder who said he had learned of the pregnancy only hours before his daughter died.

Between Sunday and Wednesday, Holly Patterson was bleeding severely, in acute pain and unable to walk, her father said. Her boyfriend rushed her late Sunday to Valley Care Medical Center in Pleasanton, Patterson said. She was given painkillers and released, Patterson said.

"She went back into the hospital in the middle of the night Wednesday, and she died at 2 p.m.," Patterson said. "The doctor told me that she hadn't aborted all of the fetus, and she had fragments left in her, and she had a massive systemic infection and went into septic shock."

The Alameda County coroner's office confirmed it was investigating Patterson's death and had not yet established the cause of death. A coroner's spokesman said Patterson had died at 1:53 p.m. at Valley Care Medical Center.

A hospital spokesperson did not return calls.

RU-486, or mifepristone, has been available in France since 1988 and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September, 2000. It was approved to end early pregnancy, of 49 days (7 weeks) or less, as an alternative to surgical abortions.

The abortion pill is considered successful when bleeding and cramping occur.

Last year, the Washington Times reported that the deaths of two women who took RU-486 had prompted the FDA to issue warning letters to physicians.

Three women who took RU-486 later suffered bleeding caused by a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, the Washington Times reported. One woman died from a hemorrhage. Two other women suffered severe systemic bacterial infections after taking the drugs, and one died.

The FDA said at the time that it was "unknown whether there is a causal relationship between any of these events and the use of RU-486."

Planned Parenthood says on its Web site that the most common side effects reported by women using RU-486 for early abortion are "similar to those of a spontaneous miscarriage: uterine cramps, bleeding, nausea and fatigue. Mifepristone is as safe as aspiration abortion; additionally, it is a completely noninvasive procedure and does not require anesthesia."

A dose of mifepristone is taken under the guidance of a clinician, according to the organization's Web site. "In a few days she uses the second medication, misoprostol. The pregnancy usually ends within four hours after taking the misoprostol. The pre-embryo or embryo and other products of conception that develop during pregnancy are passed out through the vagina. Complete abortion will occur in 96 to 97 percent of women receiving this regimen."

Statistics mean little to Monty Patterson. On Thursday night, Patterson, 49, said he was doing the unthinkable: planning his daughter's funeral.

"She was like an angel to me," he said, fighting back tears. "She was working, earning money, planning to go to college. She turned 18 on August 29. She had a new car, a red Honda Civic which now sits in the driveway."

He said he regretted his daughter couldn't tell him what she was going through.

31st Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
LIFE Coalition sponsors essay contest

In observation of the 31st anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Courts rulings making abortion legal in America through the landmark decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the LIFE Coalition is sponsoring an essay contest for students in local schools. The essays will answer the question: "How would you explain why abortion is wrong?"

Since those rulings, making it legal to terminate a fetus's life at any time during a mother's nine months of pregnancy, over 43 million lives have been lost to abortion.

The LIFE Coalition of the Fargo-Moorhead Area will commemorate the 31st anniversary of this fateful decision by holding a pro-life gathering at the Federal Court House at Roberts Street and 1st Avenue North in Fargo, January 22.

Schools invited to submit their five top essays include: Grace Lutheran School, Sullivan Middle School, Park Christian School, Shanley High School, Oak Grove Lutheran School and Collegians for Life.

Six students will be selected to read their essay at the public gathering at the federal court house between 12:15-12:45 p.m.. A cash award of $ 25 will be given to each of these students, plus "precious feet" pins will be given to the top five writers chosen from each school.

Helpful Links--Post Abortion Syndrome

LifeCare Center for Women provides helpful links for Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS) as a service to the visitors of its website at: www.lifecarecenter.org/pas.htm

Topics covered, with several sites supported by Focus on the Family, include:

How to Help Others Who Are Struggling With a Past Abortion
Are You Struggling with PAS?
Taboo Grief: Men and Abortion
Why Doesn't the Post-Abortive Woman Talk About Her Abortion?
Focus on the Family's List of Post Abortion Ministries

 

Legislators try to halt use of RU-486 after woman dies

From the Forum, Fargo, ND, November 6, 2003

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Anti-abortion lawmakers are preparing to renew their fight to halt sales of the abortion pill RU486 after a California woman's death was linked to the pill.

Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said at least four dozen lawmakers are backing a bill he planned to introduce today that would suspend the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the use of RU-486, also called mifepristone, pending an audit by the congressional General Accounting Office.

"This is all about the health of women and getting women the right information about a drug that is clearly dangerous," DeMint said.

The legislation was to be introduced the day after President Bush signed into law a ban on a procedure called partial-birth abortion by its opponents.

Abortion opponents have long sought to overturn the FDA's approval of the drug in 2000, contending the approval sidestepped FDA regulations. The FDA has defended the approval process.

RU-486 is for women who know they are pregnant and want a nonsurgical abortion. It can be used up to seven weeks after the beginning of a woman's last menstrual period.

Vicky Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, the professional organization for abortion providers in the United States and Canada, said no medical evidence exists that proves mifepristone is unsafe.

"There is absolutely no scientific evidence that would support this legislation. It's politically motivated," Saporta said.

DeMint said he would call his legislation Holly's Law, after Holly Patterson, 18, of Livermore, Calif., who died Sept. 17.

An autopsy determined that Patterson died of septic shock caused by endomyometritis, an inflammation of the uterus. The report says that endomyometritis was caused by a drug-induced abortion.

Although Patterson died just days after initiating an abortion with the drug, the controversial abortion medication was not specifically mentioned in the teen's Cause of Death report.

The California Department of Health Services and the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research are examining Patterson's death.

Bush signs legislation to ban partial birth abortion

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed legislation November 5, 2003, banning a certain type of abortion, handing the disputed procedure's opponents a long-sought victory even as a federal judge at least partially blocked the new law from taking effect.

"For years, a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth while the law looked the other way," Bush said as he signed the ban on a procedure called partial-birth abortion by its critics. "Today at last the American people and our government have confronted the violence and come to the defense of the innocent child."

The White House signed the bill before about 400 cheering lawmakers and abortion opponents, at a federal building named for former President Ronald Reagan.

But less than an hour after Bush signed the bill, a federal judge in Nebraska questioned the law's constitutionality and issued a limited temporary restraining order against it. Fully aware of the impending legal obstacles, Bush said: "The executive branch will vigorously defend this law against any who would try to overturn it in the courts."

The president said he was pleased to sign legislation that would help him and others "build a culture of life" in America. To that end, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president supports additional legislative moves--which he did not specify--to further restrict abortion.

During the October 2, 2003 debate on the bill in the House of Representatives, opponents insisted that the partial-birth abortion method is sometimes necessary to protect women's "health."

In reply, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner said that the bill includes "extensive congressional findings, based on medical evidence received in a series of legislative hearings, that...partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary to preserve a woman's health, poses serious risks to a woman's health, and in fact is below the requisite standard of medical care."

The bill defines partial-birth abortion as any abortion in which the baby-before being killed-is delivered "past the [baby's] navel...outside the body of the mother," or, "in the case of head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside of the mother."

According to Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, in a press release issued November 5, the bill "would allow the method if it was ever necessary to save a mother's life. Such an exception has been part of the legislation since it was first introduced in 1995. Nevertheless, it is still not uncommon to see news reports that the bill would 'never' allow the procedure, or to say flat out that it does not contain any exception to save a mother's life."

Effects of the abortion pill-interview with
Joel Brind, Ph.D., steroid biochemist

Dr. Brind, professor of Endocrinology at Baruch College, the City of New York, earned his B.S. at Yale University and his Ph.D in Basic Medical Sciences at New York University.

What do you think will be the long-term effects to women who take RU-486?

The RU- 486 drug dissolves very nicely in fat tissue. It's likely that it can persist, even in a single dose, for a very long period of time. Just look at DES, the synthetic estrogen prescribed to women in the 1940's and 50's. Look at the problems that showed up on the next generation. (It plagued the daughters of the women who took it with cervical cancer.) We have to wait at least another ten or 15 years before any kind of long -term ill effect might show up. It might even affect the next generation of women whose mothers had RU-486 abortions.

What are the side effects of RU-486?

Heavy uterine bleeding is suffered by anyone who takes it. Not surprising, uterine bleeding happens with any abortion. But the average time with RU-486 is nine or ten days and some women bleed for more than a month.

More than four out of five women report abdominal pain. The second part of the treatment induces uterine contractions without the kinds of preparation and growth that normally precedes labor. Demerol would generally be prescribed because aspirin or ibuprofen-type compounds would increase bleeding.

Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea also occur often. The prostaglandin drug (Misoprostol) has a very strong effect on the digestive system.

At what point does the fetus actually become expelled from the body?

The woman takes RU-486 in an oral dosage form. The oral prostaglandin,(Misoprostol) is given the following day. If the abortion doesn't happen by the next day, a second dose of prostagiandin can be given. But even then, at least 20 percent, one in five women, don't abort until some hours or even days thereafter. So you have a very, very low predictability about the timing. It's 97 percent effective, but that 97 percent means well, sometimes within the next couple of days. It has taken as long as 12 days. And that's a very long time when you are talking about someone going about her business and wondering when her abortion will happen.

Because of the excessive amount of bleeding caused by RU-486, will this have any effect on the spread of diseases such as AIDS?

I would say AIDS is not a good example. AIDS is very hard to transmit. But it would certainly increase the risk of transmitting other diseases like Hepatitis B in places like public restrooms.

Will RU-486 serve as an effective contraceptive?

RU-486 will prevent ovulation, however, it shifts the timing of the next cycle. The timing of the cycle when it is taken is critical and determines what effect it has. Hitting that cycle exactly right is impractical, especially since many women are not regular in their periods.

In addition, there are some other very serious problems as a contraceptive. Contraceptives already in wide use are progestins. They work mainly by blocking ovulation. RU-486 directly neutralizes oral contraceptives or implantable ones. The bottom line is that RU-486 is going to guarantee more unwanted pregnancies because of misuse or improper use. More unwanted pregnancies will translate into more abortions taking place.

What does your research indicate the effects RU-486 will have on breast cancer rates?