Pro-Life Groups Say FDA Must Address China Abortion Drug Health Concerns 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 1, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life groups are alarmed by news that the Chinese government-owned pharmaceutical company that makes the abortion drug sold to thousands of women in the United States also manufactures a contaminated leukemia drug that has caused paralysis in hundreds of people. They say the FDA has an obligation to investigate.
Dr. Randy O’Bannon, the director of research and education for National Right to Life, talked with LifeNews.com on Thursday about the problems.
"It’s disturbing but not surprising," he said. "Apparently everybody involved here was cutting corners."
He pointed the finger at the Clinton administration, which hurriedly approved the abortion drug towards the end of his tenure, and Danco Laboratories, the distribute of the abortion pill in the U.S.
O’Bannon also said the FDA is to blame for the possibility that the abortion drug is causing health problems for women because of the serious concerns about its Chinese manufacturer.
He said the FDA was "operating at the behest of the Clinton administration, who wanted to placate a political constituency, and the Chinese manufacturer, who just wanted the business."
Dr. O’Bannon is also worried that the Chinese company, Shanghai Hualian, "told inspectors what it thought they wanted to hear, and got approved despite numerous questions about their products, processes and procedures."
"The safety of women who might take this drug was obviously never the number one concern for any of these people, which should not be surprising when the drug you’re pushing isn’t designed to heal or cure people, but to take human lives," O’Bannon added.
"When profit or pro-abortion ideology take precedence over people’s personal welfare, you can expect to see things like leukemia patients being paralyzed by tainted drugs or American women dying from rare infections that may be associated with yet not fully studied properties of a Chinese made abortion drug," he told LifeNews.com.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research council also shared his concerns with LifeNews.com.
"Records, which FRC has seen, indicate that the Chinese RU-486 plant passed inspection in 2007, however, that was its only inspection in seven years," he said.
"Furthermore, we understand that surprise inspections of Chinese plants are not allowed. That has to change," he added.
Perkins said that there is no evidence yet that the tainted methotrexate made it to the U.S.
"But this story underscores that we are playing Russian roulette with Chinese drug imports," he explained.
"We agree with consumer advocate Dr. Sidney Wolfe that all plants owned by this company and its subsidiaries must be inspected immediately–with the results being released to the public," Perkins said.
Related web sites:
National Right to Life – https://www.nrlc.org
Family Research Council – https://www.frc.org
