Watchdog: Planned Parenthood Still Risks Women’s Health With Abortion Drug
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 16, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A leading watchdog of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, says it continues to put women’s health at risk with the dangerous abortion drug RU 486. Jim Sedlak of STOPP Planned Parenthood says it continues to violate FDA guidelines on dispensing the mifepristone pill.
"Until 2006, Planned Parenthood was giving advice about administration of medical abortion-inducing drugs that contradicted Food and Drug Administration and drug manufacturer guidelines," Sedlak tells LifeNews.com in an email.
"While the manufacturer of misopristol and the FDA recommended oral administration, Planned Parenthood advised women to take the medication intravaginally. At least two women died from infection after following the vaginally administered abortion pill regimen at Planned Parenthood facilities," he explained.
"In 2006, following publicity about four maternal deaths resulting from this abortion-inducing drug regimen, Planned Parenthood did a 180 and began to recommend oral administration," Sedlak continued.
Now, Planned Parenthood has announced that its researchers are saying that taking antibiotics along with the abortion pill and taking it orally will make it safer for mothers to have abortions.
"The FDA, however, does not recommend prophylactic antibiotics as an adjunct to the abortion pill regimen and has never approved vaginal administration of the drugs as previously recommended by Planned Parenthood," Sedlak says.
On its web site, the FDA responds to the deaths of the women from the abortion drug from September 2003 to June 2005.
“All four cases involved the off-label dosing regimen consisting of 200 mg of oral Mifeprex followed by 800 mcg of intra-vaginally placed misoprostol," the FDA notes. “The safety and effectiveness of other Mifeprex dosing regimens, including use of oral misoprostol tablets intravaginally, has not been established by the FDA.”
Sedlak responds and points out that Planned Parenthood ignored "its own complicity in deaths resulting from taking the medication intravaginally" and told the media recently about its new findings.
“Our goal was to make a safe procedure even safer," the abortion business told Reuters.
"Planned Parenthood now portrays itself as heroic for partially reverting to the protocol it ignored for years, which resulted in the deaths of unsuspecting women," Sedlak charges.
In addition, a June 2008 University of Michigan study suggests Planned Parenthood is at fault in the deaths of women in the United States from the abortion drug.
Sedlak says he is concerned that, as more women use the dangerous abortion drug and as more Planned Parenthood centers dispense it, more women will be put at risk.
He notes that Planned Parenthood has increased the number of facilities giving out the dangerous abortion drug by 61 in the last two years.
When used normally, RU 486 involves a two drug combination involves mifepristone, which deprives the developing newborn baby of food and water and essentially starves the child to death. The second drug, misoprostol, causes contractions to force the woman to birth the dead baby.
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