The leader of a pro-life women’s group is not happy that Watson Pharmaceuticals announced yesterday it is making the new ella abortion drug available nationwide.
As LifeNews.com reported, the company plans to not only stock the drug in pharmacies across the country, but will push sales of the supposedly improved emergency contraceptive pill via the Internet.
While the company maintains the drug works only as a contraceptive agent, it has been proven to destroy the lives of unborn children because it acts five days after intercourse — which is plenty of time for conception to occur and bring into existence a new, unique human being.
Concerned Women for America president Wendy Wright told LifeNews.com she is not happy with Watson Pharmaceuticals for making the prescription drug easy to obtain and for deceiving women in its promotional materials.
“The information for doctors admits that ella caused abortions in animal trials, yet the website and information for patients does not warn women of this,” she said.
Wright says Watson and the FDA are doing women a disservice by not making them aware of all of the possible complications and medical problems associated with the drug.
“Questions were raised that the drug may cause birth defects, yet the FDA allowed the drug company to avoid testing for birth defects. This is a deliberate effort to deceive women who would not otherwise take a drug that could harm their baby,” she said.
Wright is also concerned that selling the ella pills through the Internet will cause significant problems.
“Providing the drug through a website means that anyone can buy it any number of times. Watson Pharmaceuticals has made it easy for girls of all ages, or a predatory man who is sexually abusing a girl or who wants to force an abortion on an unwilling woman, to obtain this drug,” she said. “This puts women at risk from men who can slip the drug into their food or drink.”
Wright also said women will not have proper medical followup if they purchase ella online.
“Without a doctor’s oversight, girls won’t be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. When a woman experiences complications, the prescribing ‘doctor’ will be as anonymous as a drug dealer in a back alley,” she said. “Clearly, this will create more health hazards for women.”
Ella has been available in Europe as an emergency contraceptive since October 2009, where it is marketed by its developer, HRA Pharma, as ellaOne.
But the FDA, when it approved the drug, made its decision based on data from two phase III clinical trials the French drug maker HRA Pharma sponsored.
The studies showed 1.51 percent of women using ella (or ellaOne in Europe) became pregnant when using the drug 72 hours after intercourse while 2.81 percent became pregnant when using the Plan B drug.
However, Wright said the ella abortion drug maker could not answer other questions.
“The drug sponsor couldn’t provide information on whether Ella can cause birth defects, or what happens to women who are pregnant who take it. And yet the committee strongly recommended not giving a woman a pregnancy test,” she told LifeNews.com after the hearing.
“In Europe, Ella is contra-indicated (not to be used) in pregnancies. But the FDA committee voted to not to test women to detect if they’re pregnant. They are telling doctors to be willfully blind when giving the drug,” Wright continued.
Americans United for Life and the American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists told the FDA a study in England confirms the pro-life perspective that ulipristal acts as an abortion drug.
Anna Glasier, of NHS Lothian in Edinburgh, led a study of more than 5,500 women in the UK published online in The Lancet medical journal. It found fewer pregnancies among those women given the ellaOne drug within five days of intercourse.
And for women who took the drug between 3-5 days after having sex, only women taking the traditional morning after pill became pregnant. They’s because all of the women using ulipristal during that time period either didn’t conceive or had abortions.
