Abortion Drug Target of Lawsuit by Family of Woman Who Died

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 10, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Abortion Drug Target of Lawsuit by Family of Woman Who Died Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 10, 2005

Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) — The family of a woman who died after using the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug has filed a lawsuit against Danco Laboratories, its manufacturer. The family says the company failed to disclose to women taking the pills that they could cause infections leading to death and pose other risks.

Hoa Thuy Tran, a 21 year-old teaching student from Orange County died in 2003 after taking the RU 486 abortion pills. She is one of five California women to have died after taking the abortion drugs, sold under the brand name Mifeprex.

The lawsuit marks the first time Tran’s name has been made public following her death. Both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local health officials are looking into her case.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Tran’s family also sued Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties and the Population Council, an abortion advocacy group that holds the patent rights to the abortion drug. The Population Council also conducted the clinical trials that led to the fast-track FDA approval of the abortion pill in the waning days of the Clinton administration.

The family filed the case last week in Orange County Superior Court.

Like Holly Patterson, a Bay Area teen who died in September 2003 from the abortion drug, Tran received the pills at a Planned Parenthood abortion business.

She took the drugs on December 23 at the Planned Parenthood in Costa Mesa, the Times reported. Staff at the abortion center told Tran to take the follow-up misoprostol drug, which causes women to give birth to the dead baby a day or two later.

Tran used the drugs and then traveled with friends on a trip to Las Vegas, the Times reported. She collapsed and died on December 29.

Attorney Mark Crawford is representing Tran’s five year-old daughter, Destiny Nguyen, and her husband, Charlie Nguyen.

"The main point is that she was not given any warnings of any risk of death, of any risk of infection, of any risk of septic shock," her told the Times. "There had been two prior deaths [by then]…. There was a risk out there."

In Patterson’s case, an official autopsy disclosed that the abortion pills brought on an infection, sepsis, that led to her death. No official autopsy was performed on Tran, but Crawford indicated her family paid for a private one.

The autopsy "determined there was evidence indicative of infection and sepsis," according to the Times.