Father of Teen Who Died From Abortion Drug Will Attend FDA Conference 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 10, 2006
Livermore, CA (LifeNews.com) — The father of a California teenager who died after using the dangerous abortion drug she obtained from a local Planned Parenthood will attend a join FDA-CDC meeting on Thursday as the federal agencies look into why the abortion pill has recently killed five women through lethal bacterial infections.
Monty Patterson’s 18-year-old daughter Holly died in September 2003 from a Clostridium sordellii infection a week after taking the abortion drug.
Since then, Patterson has called for withdrawing the abortion drug from the market and has spent two years thoroughly researching and investigating scientific articles about its problems.
He plans to attend the Thursday workshop to ask questions and hand over nearly four hundred articles medical and scientific journals about the abortion drug to agency officials.
"[T]he safety, health, and welfare of women considering medical abortion with RU 486 is paramount and should not be jeopardized with a drug that can hurt or cause death," Patterson told LifeNews.com in a statement.
"Women have paid the ultimate price to now finally get the attention of the medical and scientific community to seek answers to these problems," he added.
Patterson argues that RU 486 predisposes women to the lethal bacterial infections by impairing and altering their immune response.
James A. McGregor, M.D., of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, agrees.
“Mifepristone (RU-486) has multiple pharmacologic properties that may interfere with innate immune responses to infection, toxin exposures, and inflammatory stimuli," he explained.
Patterson will also testify before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources next week.
The hearing entitled “RU-486: Demonstrating a Low Standard for Women’s Health?” will examine the unsafe characteristics of RU-486, the maternal deaths and adverse events associated with the drug.
"RU 486 can be a lethal choice for use in early medical pregnancy terminations. I will never think it is safe," he said.
