By John Jalsevac
JEFFERSON CITY, MO, February 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A bill recently introduced into the Missouri House of Representatives seeks to protect pharmacists from civil and criminal liability for refusing to dispense the morning after pill by stating that no pharmacists should be required to assist in an abortion.
What is especially unique about House Bill 1625, as compared to other conscience legislation that has been introduced in other states, is that the bill, if passed, would officially reclassify the morning after pill as an abortifacient.
The text of the bill, introduced by Representative Edgar Emery, states: "No licensed pharmacy in this state shall be required to perform, assist, recommend, refer to, or participate in any act or service in connection with any drug or device that is an abortifacient, including but not limited to the RU486 drug and emergency contraception such as the Plan B drug."
At present the FDA does not classify the morning after pill as an abortifacient, but only as a contraceptive. However, the pill has been shown to have a number of mechanisms to prevent birth, including preventing the implantation of an already fertilized egg into the uterus, which action meets the definition of an abortion. The manufacturer's own information about the drug states that the pill "may inhibit implantation by altering the endometrium."
Nevertheless, at the same time as admitting that the pill may prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, Plan B also insists that the "emergency contraceptive" is not an abortifacient, a claim that thus far the FDA has gone along with.
HB 1625 comes on the heels of an opposing bill, HB 1720, introduced in January by Rep. Mike Talboy, that would require pharmacists to fill "valid and lawful prescriptions for all federal Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs or devices used to prevent pregnancy, including emergency contraceptives, without delay."
HB 1720 states: "A pharmacy and its employees have a duty to treat each customer in a nonjudgmental manner and ensure that each customer is not subjected to indignity, humiliation, breaches of confidentiality, or pressure to fill or not to fill the prescription. The provisions of this subsection are fully applicable to over-the-counter emergency contraception sold to persons of legal age."
Pamela Sumners, executive director of the Missouri affiliate of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said about the newest bill, "If you become a pharmacist, you should do your job."
However, Rep. Emery stated that the bill "is an acknowledgement that in the litigant society in which we live, there's always the threat that people who are doing things according to their conscience could be sued because someone else has a different sense of conscience." Emery's bill would ensure that no pharmacists would be subject to litigation on account of his conscience.
Showing posts with label abortifacient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abortifacient. Show all posts
10.06.2007
Priest pleads to keep Plan B out of Catholic hospitals!
Human Life International President: "Plan A: Keep 'Plan B' Out of Catholic Hospitals"
Commentary by Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International
On September 28th the Connecticut bishops issued an unfortunate statement allowing the Plan B abortion-causing drug to be used in cases of rape in Catholic hospitals. I have written respectfully and urgently to the Connecticut Catholic Conference (CCC) and to each bishop individually to ask them to withdraw this potentially precedent-setting statement, and I pray that they do so. I am extremely concerned that this statement will begin to have a domino effect on other Catholic hospitals and healthcare institutions.
First, let me be clear about our obligations as Catholics. While our bishops operate in union with the Vicar of Christ, no individual bishop or conference of bishops, however wise or holy, has the charism of infallibility. Our respect for our bishops is sometimes exercised in presenting them with the clear facts that their advisors may have missed. It is an expression of our filial cooperation in their ministry. In this case, we have no option but to humbly ask them to reverse their decision due to some extremely egregious errors contained in the statement.
Errors of fact
Error number 1: "The administration of Plan B pills in this instance cannot be judged to be the commission of an abortion because of such doubt about how Plan B pills and similar drugs work."
The truth is that there is absolutely no doubt about how the Plan B pills work. Just ask the manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, whose product insert states: "This product works mainly by preventing ovulation (egg release). It may also prevent fertilization of a released egg (joining of sperm and egg) or attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus (implantation)." It's that third item that makes Plan B an abortion-causing drug. The same can be said for every chemical contraceptive.
Error number 2: "...the teaching authority of the Church has not definitively resolved this matter...." Here, regretfully, Catholics are led to believe that Rome has not unambiguously addressed the issue of Plan B (a.k.a., the "morning after pill") already.
The truth of this matter is evident by a simple recourse to a statement of the Pontifical Academy for Life on the Vatican's website. The Academy stated in a document issued in October of 2001 that "from the ethical standpoint the same absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing and taking the morning-after pill. All who, whether sharing the intention or not, directly co-operate with this procedure, are also morally responsible for it." The Vatican did not need to invent any new teaching on the Plan B pills because these pills fall into the category of abortifacient contraception, pure and simple. The consistent teaching of our Church on abortion applies here.
Errors of judgment
There were other errors in judgment in the bishops' statement that confuse the issue from a moral point of view. The bishops state that "to administer Plan B pills without an ovulation test is not an intrinsically evil act." This type of language just confuses the issue. It would indeed be a seriously irresponsible act to administer a killing drug not knowing whether or not ovulation has occurred and a new life is present. It would be like a hunter shooting at something moving in a forest if he were not really sure that what he saw was an animal or a human being. To use the language of "intrinsically evil" would make us think - legalistically - that it would be okay to take an action if it were only possibly evil. Hair-splitting language like this does not give us guidance when our moral obligation is to err on the side of life whenever there is a doubt. Furthermore, Dr. Chris Kahlenborn has shown that Plan B only works to halt ovulation half the time. Thus fertilization may occur even after the pill is administered, and a chemical abortion would result.
The core of the matter
What we are faced with here is the long arm of the culture of death reaching into our Catholic institutions and coercing us to comply with its totalitarian dictates. The Connecticut state legislature, with the complicity of the governor, passed a law that forbad the use of ovulation tests in cases of rape - why? This unwarranted government intrusion into a purely medical decision was totally unnecessary and would not likely have affected any other institutions than Catholic ones. It is, in my opinion, a law that was drafted deliberately to coerce Catholic hospitals to comply with the contraceptive dictates of the abortion providers. Remember this same state was the origin of the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court case which legalized contraception! It is no wonder that Connecticut is reaping the rotten fruit of the seeds that it sowed over forty years ago.
The bishops were forced into a "reluctant compliance" with this law, according to Bishop Lori of Bridgeport, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Acts of blatant coercion of Catholic consciences are already far advanced and will only continue unless the Church is willing to stand up and rebuke the arrogance of these coercive measures and carve out strict realms of conscience which are unreachable by activist courts and corrupt politicians. That will require Church leaders to be willing to fight ferocious battles against the dictators of relativism in order to assert our rights of conscience and faith. All Catholics, but especially our leaders, will have to be clear-headed and uncompromising in the face of the temptations to put our Catholic institutions in league with the liars and manipulators of the culture of death.
I envision a day in which Catholic leaders may have to resign from lucrative positions in business and shut down Catholic healthcare institutions rather than cooperate in the arrogant and coercive programs of the culture of death. Actually, I think that day has already arrived.
What we can do
Our greatest weapon in this battle against the culture of death is prayer. I ask you to pray for the bishops, above all, who are usually the target of attack by the culture of death and are often surrounded by compromisers. We need their strong moral leadership unfettered by lawyers and "ethicists" who prevent them from taking up arms in the culture wars. We are at a point in our Church's history where bishops and priests are being called to martyrdom for the sake of the Faith, and only prayer will give them that courage to embrace their vocations to the last drop of blood.
Secondly, we all need to make a firm decision to never be silent in the face of any form of chemical killing. Abortifacient contraception is a back-door plague which enters into lives, institutions and societies in the guise of the birth control "savior," but it is just one more way to kill, and with greater frequency at that.
Finally, stay tuned for more battles in more states with more Catholic healthcare institutions. One phone call I had with the legislative advisor of the Connecticut Catholic Conference gave me the impression that the domino effect is already happening in other episcopal conferences, and that concerns me deeply. The vigilance of many great pro-life forces, coupled with prayer and massive protests from people of conscience will undoubtedly give our Church leaders the courage to imitate the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for His sheep.
Commentary by Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International
On September 28th the Connecticut bishops issued an unfortunate statement allowing the Plan B abortion-causing drug to be used in cases of rape in Catholic hospitals. I have written respectfully and urgently to the Connecticut Catholic Conference (CCC) and to each bishop individually to ask them to withdraw this potentially precedent-setting statement, and I pray that they do so. I am extremely concerned that this statement will begin to have a domino effect on other Catholic hospitals and healthcare institutions.
First, let me be clear about our obligations as Catholics. While our bishops operate in union with the Vicar of Christ, no individual bishop or conference of bishops, however wise or holy, has the charism of infallibility. Our respect for our bishops is sometimes exercised in presenting them with the clear facts that their advisors may have missed. It is an expression of our filial cooperation in their ministry. In this case, we have no option but to humbly ask them to reverse their decision due to some extremely egregious errors contained in the statement.
Errors of fact
Error number 1: "The administration of Plan B pills in this instance cannot be judged to be the commission of an abortion because of such doubt about how Plan B pills and similar drugs work."
The truth is that there is absolutely no doubt about how the Plan B pills work. Just ask the manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, whose product insert states: "This product works mainly by preventing ovulation (egg release). It may also prevent fertilization of a released egg (joining of sperm and egg) or attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus (implantation)." It's that third item that makes Plan B an abortion-causing drug. The same can be said for every chemical contraceptive.
Error number 2: "...the teaching authority of the Church has not definitively resolved this matter...." Here, regretfully, Catholics are led to believe that Rome has not unambiguously addressed the issue of Plan B (a.k.a., the "morning after pill") already.
The truth of this matter is evident by a simple recourse to a statement of the Pontifical Academy for Life on the Vatican's website. The Academy stated in a document issued in October of 2001 that "from the ethical standpoint the same absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing and taking the morning-after pill. All who, whether sharing the intention or not, directly co-operate with this procedure, are also morally responsible for it." The Vatican did not need to invent any new teaching on the Plan B pills because these pills fall into the category of abortifacient contraception, pure and simple. The consistent teaching of our Church on abortion applies here.
Errors of judgment
There were other errors in judgment in the bishops' statement that confuse the issue from a moral point of view. The bishops state that "to administer Plan B pills without an ovulation test is not an intrinsically evil act." This type of language just confuses the issue. It would indeed be a seriously irresponsible act to administer a killing drug not knowing whether or not ovulation has occurred and a new life is present. It would be like a hunter shooting at something moving in a forest if he were not really sure that what he saw was an animal or a human being. To use the language of "intrinsically evil" would make us think - legalistically - that it would be okay to take an action if it were only possibly evil. Hair-splitting language like this does not give us guidance when our moral obligation is to err on the side of life whenever there is a doubt. Furthermore, Dr. Chris Kahlenborn has shown that Plan B only works to halt ovulation half the time. Thus fertilization may occur even after the pill is administered, and a chemical abortion would result.
The core of the matter
What we are faced with here is the long arm of the culture of death reaching into our Catholic institutions and coercing us to comply with its totalitarian dictates. The Connecticut state legislature, with the complicity of the governor, passed a law that forbad the use of ovulation tests in cases of rape - why? This unwarranted government intrusion into a purely medical decision was totally unnecessary and would not likely have affected any other institutions than Catholic ones. It is, in my opinion, a law that was drafted deliberately to coerce Catholic hospitals to comply with the contraceptive dictates of the abortion providers. Remember this same state was the origin of the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court case which legalized contraception! It is no wonder that Connecticut is reaping the rotten fruit of the seeds that it sowed over forty years ago.
The bishops were forced into a "reluctant compliance" with this law, according to Bishop Lori of Bridgeport, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Acts of blatant coercion of Catholic consciences are already far advanced and will only continue unless the Church is willing to stand up and rebuke the arrogance of these coercive measures and carve out strict realms of conscience which are unreachable by activist courts and corrupt politicians. That will require Church leaders to be willing to fight ferocious battles against the dictators of relativism in order to assert our rights of conscience and faith. All Catholics, but especially our leaders, will have to be clear-headed and uncompromising in the face of the temptations to put our Catholic institutions in league with the liars and manipulators of the culture of death.
I envision a day in which Catholic leaders may have to resign from lucrative positions in business and shut down Catholic healthcare institutions rather than cooperate in the arrogant and coercive programs of the culture of death. Actually, I think that day has already arrived.
What we can do
Our greatest weapon in this battle against the culture of death is prayer. I ask you to pray for the bishops, above all, who are usually the target of attack by the culture of death and are often surrounded by compromisers. We need their strong moral leadership unfettered by lawyers and "ethicists" who prevent them from taking up arms in the culture wars. We are at a point in our Church's history where bishops and priests are being called to martyrdom for the sake of the Faith, and only prayer will give them that courage to embrace their vocations to the last drop of blood.
Secondly, we all need to make a firm decision to never be silent in the face of any form of chemical killing. Abortifacient contraception is a back-door plague which enters into lives, institutions and societies in the guise of the birth control "savior," but it is just one more way to kill, and with greater frequency at that.
Finally, stay tuned for more battles in more states with more Catholic healthcare institutions. One phone call I had with the legislative advisor of the Connecticut Catholic Conference gave me the impression that the domino effect is already happening in other episcopal conferences, and that concerns me deeply. The vigilance of many great pro-life forces, coupled with prayer and massive protests from people of conscience will undoubtedly give our Church leaders the courage to imitate the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for His sheep.
2.04.2006
The Human Pesticide That Kills Mother, Too
RU-486 is the drug that won’t die, no matter how many women who take it do. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that an RU-486 abortion was an astonishing ten times more likely to be fatal for the mother than a surgical abortion performed at the same point in pregnancy (RU-486 is not used for late-term abortions).
By Joseph A. D’Agostino
On January 28, Dr. Ralph Miech presented an explanation of how the RU-486 abortion pill kills women to a Florida conference of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG). RU-486, he said, has an anti-glucocorticoid effect, which promotes unhealthy inflammation in the body since glucocorticoid is naturally needed to suppress inflammation. This pro-inflammatory effect of RU-486 can lead to septic shock as the bacterium Clostridium sordellii multiplies in the body, sometimes causing death. And the funny thing is, the anti-glucocorticoid effect of RU-486 was known before the FDA approved the drug. Now, women by the hundreds are having potentially life-threatening complications, and at least a few have died.
RU-486 is the drug that won’t die, no matter how many women who take it do. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine (see PRI's Weekly Briefing, Dec. 2, 2005, "Time for a RU-486 Rollback") suggested that an RU-486 abortion was an astonishing ten times more likely to be fatal for the mother than a surgical abortion performed at the same point in pregnancy (RU-486 is not used for late-term abortions). The abortion pill, which has been used to kill over 500,000 unborn children in this country since the FDA officially rushed its approval in September 2000, has the advantage of promoting the abortionists’ goal of making abortion a humdrum, everyday affair, available from any doctor or pharmacist in the world instead of segregated into abortion slaughterhouses. As in America’s days of old, when folk tolerated slavery but didn’t like to see slave-trading going on in respectable parts of town or associate with slave-traders, we don’t like to think the clinics we visit or the doctors we know perform abortions. So abortion is largely shunted off into clinics located in poor minority neighborhoods.
Mifepristone, the scientific name for RU-486, promises to change all that. It’s a simple pill that can be taken at home. It requires no pricey vacuum cutterage equipment, no bloody surgical table in the doctor’s office. No dead fetuses in the health clinic’s medical wastebaskets to explain to any queasy souls. All it requires is the doctor to write a few words on a little square of white paper and hand it to his expectant patient—something he does many times a day as it is. A woman seeking to abort her child need not risk been seen entering or leaving an abortuary.
Abortion easy, abortion everywhere, without any clinics to be picketed by pesky child-huggers.
The one flaw in this inhuman and anti-human dream drug: It not only kills the baby, it sometimes harms or even kills the mother. Surgical abortion is safer for the mother, which is why even pro-abortion activists should favor the withdrawal of RU-486—but safety is not their No. 1 priority.
“RU-38486 was initially developed as an anti-glucocorticoid to treat Cushing's Disease and in the course of routine toxicology studies it was found to be an abortifacient,” Miech told PRI. “Under the name RU-486, it was developed as a medical abortifacient and its toxic effect on the innate immune system was not studied or was ignored.”
Two female physicians, Margaret M. Gary and Donna J. Harrison, just published a study in the February 2006 The Annals of Pharmacotherapy.
Harrison is chairwoman of AAPLOG’s Subcommittee on Mifeprex. “The choice of mifepristone termination over surgical termination is based mainly on patient perceptions of safety, convenience, and privacy, but these perceptions do not accurately reflect the realities of the regimen,” they concluded.
The two doctors examined 637 mifepristone adverse event reports (AERs) filed by health care practitioners after mifepristone (brand name
Mifeprex) was used by patients. It’s taken years to get these reports released, and they are incomplete—and many adverse events are never reported at all under America’s lax reporting system. Miech noted, “The way the FDA has set up the AER process is that it is voluntary, and physicians and nurses are too busy to take the time to fill out the simple paper work. Furthermore, most physicians and nurses do not know what an AER is.”
Wrote Gary and Harrison, “AERs relied upon by the FDA to monitor mifepristone’s post-marketing safety are grossly deficient due to extremely poor quality.” They do contain a lot of gruesome detail, however. The AERs included those on the four American women known to have died from RU-486 plus the death of a Swedish teenager.
Hemorrhage (237 reported) and infection (66) were the most frequent complications among the AERs. Among the hemorrhages, 168 were serious cases, 42 life-threatening, and one was fatal. Seven cases of septic shock were reported, four life-threatening and three fatal. Emergency surgery was required in 513 cases.
The inflammations resulting from taking RU-486 reported in the AERs may be due to mifepristone’s quality of suppressing anti-inflammatories, not allergic reactions as some believe, suggest the two. “These pro-inflammatory reactions reported as allergic reactions in AERs may be due to the action of mifepristone’s blockade of cortisol receptors,” they wrote.
The Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Mark Souder (R.-Ind.), is already investigating RU-486’s safety. In the meantime, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R.-Md.) is trying to get Holly’s Law passed. Named after 18-year-old California girl Holly Patterson, a healthy young woman killed by RU-486, Holly’s Law (HR 1079) would revoke government approval of RU-486. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R.) has a companion bill, S 511. “In his State of the Union Address last night, President Bush said, ‘A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners, and that recognize the matchless value of every life,’” said Bartlett on February 1. “The President’s words and this research add more compelling justification for Holly’s Law because the FDA slashed ethical and procedural corners when it approved RU-486 under a special ‘restricted distribution’ approval process.”
Meanwhile, the manufacturer of misoprostol, which is often—maybe usually—used in conjunction with mifepristone to perform abortions, has again warned that such a use is not safe. And the Australian Senate is expected to vote next week on whether to override the Health minister’s decision to keep RU-486 illegal. In a submission to the Australian parliament, Harrison and the Family Research Council’s Chris Gacek warned that rural Australians would suffer most. “Finally, many of the women who underwent emergency procedures are alive because they had rapid access to surgical and hospital services. In a rural area, where medical and surgical access is limited, these women would likely have died. Women in rural areas are the most vulnerable to lethal complications from a mifepristone abortion,” they said.
The growing number of professional articles questioning RU-486’s safety haven’t slowed the drug’s well-funded and globally-aware advocates one bit.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the Population Research Institute.
_____
PRI
P.O. Box 1559
Front Royal, Va. 22630
USA
Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728
Email: jad@pop.org
Media Contact: Joseph A. D'Agostino
(540) 622-5240, ext. 204
Website: www.pop.org
_________
(c) 2006 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted. Redistribute widely. Credit required. _________
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to PRI, please go to http://pop.org/donate.cfm. All donations (of any size) are welcomed and appreciated. _________
To subscribe to the Weekly Briefing, go to: http://pop.org/subscribe-weekly.cfm or email us at pri@pop.org and say "Add me to your Weekly Briefing." __________ The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation."
By Joseph A. D’Agostino
On January 28, Dr. Ralph Miech presented an explanation of how the RU-486 abortion pill kills women to a Florida conference of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG). RU-486, he said, has an anti-glucocorticoid effect, which promotes unhealthy inflammation in the body since glucocorticoid is naturally needed to suppress inflammation. This pro-inflammatory effect of RU-486 can lead to septic shock as the bacterium Clostridium sordellii multiplies in the body, sometimes causing death. And the funny thing is, the anti-glucocorticoid effect of RU-486 was known before the FDA approved the drug. Now, women by the hundreds are having potentially life-threatening complications, and at least a few have died.
RU-486 is the drug that won’t die, no matter how many women who take it do. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine (see PRI's Weekly Briefing, Dec. 2, 2005, "Time for a RU-486 Rollback") suggested that an RU-486 abortion was an astonishing ten times more likely to be fatal for the mother than a surgical abortion performed at the same point in pregnancy (RU-486 is not used for late-term abortions). The abortion pill, which has been used to kill over 500,000 unborn children in this country since the FDA officially rushed its approval in September 2000, has the advantage of promoting the abortionists’ goal of making abortion a humdrum, everyday affair, available from any doctor or pharmacist in the world instead of segregated into abortion slaughterhouses. As in America’s days of old, when folk tolerated slavery but didn’t like to see slave-trading going on in respectable parts of town or associate with slave-traders, we don’t like to think the clinics we visit or the doctors we know perform abortions. So abortion is largely shunted off into clinics located in poor minority neighborhoods.
Mifepristone, the scientific name for RU-486, promises to change all that. It’s a simple pill that can be taken at home. It requires no pricey vacuum cutterage equipment, no bloody surgical table in the doctor’s office. No dead fetuses in the health clinic’s medical wastebaskets to explain to any queasy souls. All it requires is the doctor to write a few words on a little square of white paper and hand it to his expectant patient—something he does many times a day as it is. A woman seeking to abort her child need not risk been seen entering or leaving an abortuary.
Abortion easy, abortion everywhere, without any clinics to be picketed by pesky child-huggers.
The one flaw in this inhuman and anti-human dream drug: It not only kills the baby, it sometimes harms or even kills the mother. Surgical abortion is safer for the mother, which is why even pro-abortion activists should favor the withdrawal of RU-486—but safety is not their No. 1 priority.
“RU-38486 was initially developed as an anti-glucocorticoid to treat Cushing's Disease and in the course of routine toxicology studies it was found to be an abortifacient,” Miech told PRI. “Under the name RU-486, it was developed as a medical abortifacient and its toxic effect on the innate immune system was not studied or was ignored.”
Two female physicians, Margaret M. Gary and Donna J. Harrison, just published a study in the February 2006 The Annals of Pharmacotherapy.
Harrison is chairwoman of AAPLOG’s Subcommittee on Mifeprex. “The choice of mifepristone termination over surgical termination is based mainly on patient perceptions of safety, convenience, and privacy, but these perceptions do not accurately reflect the realities of the regimen,” they concluded.
The two doctors examined 637 mifepristone adverse event reports (AERs) filed by health care practitioners after mifepristone (brand name
Mifeprex) was used by patients. It’s taken years to get these reports released, and they are incomplete—and many adverse events are never reported at all under America’s lax reporting system. Miech noted, “The way the FDA has set up the AER process is that it is voluntary, and physicians and nurses are too busy to take the time to fill out the simple paper work. Furthermore, most physicians and nurses do not know what an AER is.”
Wrote Gary and Harrison, “AERs relied upon by the FDA to monitor mifepristone’s post-marketing safety are grossly deficient due to extremely poor quality.” They do contain a lot of gruesome detail, however. The AERs included those on the four American women known to have died from RU-486 plus the death of a Swedish teenager.
Hemorrhage (237 reported) and infection (66) were the most frequent complications among the AERs. Among the hemorrhages, 168 were serious cases, 42 life-threatening, and one was fatal. Seven cases of septic shock were reported, four life-threatening and three fatal. Emergency surgery was required in 513 cases.
The inflammations resulting from taking RU-486 reported in the AERs may be due to mifepristone’s quality of suppressing anti-inflammatories, not allergic reactions as some believe, suggest the two. “These pro-inflammatory reactions reported as allergic reactions in AERs may be due to the action of mifepristone’s blockade of cortisol receptors,” they wrote.
The Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Mark Souder (R.-Ind.), is already investigating RU-486’s safety. In the meantime, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R.-Md.) is trying to get Holly’s Law passed. Named after 18-year-old California girl Holly Patterson, a healthy young woman killed by RU-486, Holly’s Law (HR 1079) would revoke government approval of RU-486. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R.) has a companion bill, S 511. “In his State of the Union Address last night, President Bush said, ‘A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners, and that recognize the matchless value of every life,’” said Bartlett on February 1. “The President’s words and this research add more compelling justification for Holly’s Law because the FDA slashed ethical and procedural corners when it approved RU-486 under a special ‘restricted distribution’ approval process.”
Meanwhile, the manufacturer of misoprostol, which is often—maybe usually—used in conjunction with mifepristone to perform abortions, has again warned that such a use is not safe. And the Australian Senate is expected to vote next week on whether to override the Health minister’s decision to keep RU-486 illegal. In a submission to the Australian parliament, Harrison and the Family Research Council’s Chris Gacek warned that rural Australians would suffer most. “Finally, many of the women who underwent emergency procedures are alive because they had rapid access to surgical and hospital services. In a rural area, where medical and surgical access is limited, these women would likely have died. Women in rural areas are the most vulnerable to lethal complications from a mifepristone abortion,” they said.
The growing number of professional articles questioning RU-486’s safety haven’t slowed the drug’s well-funded and globally-aware advocates one bit.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the Population Research Institute.
_____
PRI
P.O. Box 1559
Front Royal, Va. 22630
USA
Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728
Email: jad@pop.org
Media Contact: Joseph A. D'Agostino
(540) 622-5240, ext. 204
Website: www.pop.org
_________
(c) 2006 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted. Redistribute widely. Credit required. _________
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to PRI, please go to http://pop.org/donate.cfm. All donations (of any size) are welcomed and appreciated. _________
To subscribe to the Weekly Briefing, go to: http://pop.org/subscribe-weekly.cfm or email us at pri@pop.org and say "Add me to your Weekly Briefing." __________ The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation."
6.06.2005
A Guaranteed Abortifacient Form of Contraception
Isn't this wonderful? One the one hand, the medical community has finally recognized the danger of the Pill. However, with the introduction of this new drug, we can guarantee that each and every fertilized ovum will be aborted. Notice the deceptive language being employed- " an embryo would not attach to the womb wall, and a pregnancy would be impossible."
And as this is reported, Blessed Mother says this at Holy Love:
Now the medical community can ensure that many more acts of coitus will result in abortion. Lord have mercy.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/06/05 23:14:41 GMT
Hope for new contraceptive option
Scientists are working on an alternative to the contraceptive pill which they hope would carry a lower risk of side effects.
A University of Cambridge team has discovered a molecule, STAT3, that helps embryos implant in the womb.
They say a drug that blocks STAT3 should act as a contraceptive without disrupting hormones, or raising the risk of blood clots, as the Pill does.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Cambridge team has shown that STAT3 plays a key role in signalling to the cells lining the womb that they should allow the embryo to attach.
Without that signal an embryo would not attach to the womb wall, and a pregnancy would be impossible.
Role in tumours
Drug companies are already researching ways to block STAT3 because it has also been implicated in the formation of tumours, and diabetes.
CONTRACEPTIVE PILL
Associated with higher risk of:
Breast cancer
High blood pressure
Blood clots
Associated with lower risk of:
Ovarian cancer
Endometrial cancer
Acne
Lead researcher Dr Andrew Sharkey said the latest research suggested the experimental compounds under development might also act as a contraceptive.
"These compounds may be effective at preventing implantation in humans if appropriate dose and delivery systems can be devised to target the uterus, such as gels."
The researchers are also investigating whether deficiencies in STAT3 signalling might be responsible for certain types of infertility.
They believe it might be possible to treat some cases of infertility by activating STAT3 signalling.
Dr Anna Glasier, director of family planning for Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust, said molecules which had a specific effect on the body were the most likely to minimise the risk of side effects.
Risks and benefits
But she said modern contraceptive pills, although associated with side effects, including an apparent increased risk of breast cancer, also had beneficial effects.
For instance, the combined pill is associated with a decreased risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers, and can help to improve skin conditions, such as acne.
"If you get more and more specific in the molecules that are used to provide contraception, then you will lose all those non-contraceptive benefits," she said.
Toni Belfield, of the Family Planning Association, said: "All research into improving women and men's choices in contraception is to be welcomed.
"But what is just as important is to improve the information that we provide about current contraceptive methods, to remove the many myths and misinformation about their risks and benefits."
The research was funded by the World Health Organization as part of a programme to identify new targets for contraception development.
And as this is reported, Blessed Mother says this at Holy Love:
“You must understand that self-love has carried away the hearts of a vast majority of the world populace to the point of God’s Creation being convoluted towards the fulfillment of this disordered self-love. The life that God creates in the womb is defiled and discarded without regard for the soul that He creates at the moment of conception—discarded because life is not loved for what it is; or even worse, body parts are harvested as though the unborn child was a used car.”
“While Christians go to every extreme to limit reproduction and use sex only for pleasure, the nation of Islam is burgeoning forth and will soon outnumber all other populations. You do not see what lies hidden in some hearts, but I tell you that unnatural birth control is a tool Satan is using to bring destruction to your doorstep.”
Now the medical community can ensure that many more acts of coitus will result in abortion. Lord have mercy.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/06/05 23:14:41 GMT
Hope for new contraceptive option
Scientists are working on an alternative to the contraceptive pill which they hope would carry a lower risk of side effects.
A University of Cambridge team has discovered a molecule, STAT3, that helps embryos implant in the womb.
They say a drug that blocks STAT3 should act as a contraceptive without disrupting hormones, or raising the risk of blood clots, as the Pill does.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Cambridge team has shown that STAT3 plays a key role in signalling to the cells lining the womb that they should allow the embryo to attach.
Without that signal an embryo would not attach to the womb wall, and a pregnancy would be impossible.
Role in tumours
Drug companies are already researching ways to block STAT3 because it has also been implicated in the formation of tumours, and diabetes.
CONTRACEPTIVE PILL
Associated with higher risk of:
Breast cancer
High blood pressure
Blood clots
Associated with lower risk of:
Ovarian cancer
Endometrial cancer
Acne
Lead researcher Dr Andrew Sharkey said the latest research suggested the experimental compounds under development might also act as a contraceptive.
"These compounds may be effective at preventing implantation in humans if appropriate dose and delivery systems can be devised to target the uterus, such as gels."
The researchers are also investigating whether deficiencies in STAT3 signalling might be responsible for certain types of infertility.
They believe it might be possible to treat some cases of infertility by activating STAT3 signalling.
Dr Anna Glasier, director of family planning for Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust, said molecules which had a specific effect on the body were the most likely to minimise the risk of side effects.
Risks and benefits
But she said modern contraceptive pills, although associated with side effects, including an apparent increased risk of breast cancer, also had beneficial effects.
For instance, the combined pill is associated with a decreased risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers, and can help to improve skin conditions, such as acne.
"If you get more and more specific in the molecules that are used to provide contraception, then you will lose all those non-contraceptive benefits," she said.
Toni Belfield, of the Family Planning Association, said: "All research into improving women and men's choices in contraception is to be welcomed.
"But what is just as important is to improve the information that we provide about current contraceptive methods, to remove the many myths and misinformation about their risks and benefits."
The research was funded by the World Health Organization as part of a programme to identify new targets for contraception development.
1.06.2005
UN Agency Elusive About Abortion Aid for Tsunami Victims
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) describes itself as the "largest international public sector supplier of contraceptives, condoms and other reproductive health essentials," and states that such supplies are "critical to protecting reproductive health in emergency situations." Yet in press releases on its tsunami relief activities, UNFPA steers clear of directly stating that it provides contraceptives or abortion aids. UNFPA may be responding to past public criticism after disclosures that it was providing such supplies.
In its January 6 press release, the latest and most explicit to date, UNFPA has requested $28 million in donations for, among other things, "the reestablishment of basic reproductive health services" in Indonesia, the re-establishment of "reproductive health services," purchases of "reproductive health commodities" and promotion of "adolescent reproductive health" in the Maldives, and to meet "urgent reproductive health needs" and "restore" and raise awareness of "emergency reproductive health services" in Sri Lanka.
According to UNFPA's "Reproductive Health in Emergency Situations" manual, the "reproductive health needs" of refugees include "guaranteeing the availability of free condoms." Indeed, UNFPA's website says that "Free condoms are among the first reproductive health supplies to reach people caught in a crisis situation...UNFPA provides both male and female condoms in emergencies."
The manual also describes the "reproductive health kits" developed by UNFPA for "the initial acute phase of the emergency," which include "condoms," "oral and injectable contraceptives" including the abortifacient morning-after pills, and "IUD[s]." The kits also contain manual vacuum aspirators, portable abortion devices that are easily used in primitive conditions such as refugee areas.
The supplies in the kits are "stored by UNFPA in preparation for immediate distribution when an earthquake, flood...or other crisis arises." Thus, UNFPA is able to "mount a quick response to emergencies, especially in the initial stages [and] can ship out supplies of condoms and other commodities within a few days." In 2003, UNFPA shipped out over 300 of these "reproductive health kits" to 34 "emergency destinations." [Each reproductive health kit is designed to assist populations totaling between 10,000-150,000 for up to three months.] UNFPA has not disclosed whether it is providing these kits for tsunami refugees.
UNFPA's increasing caution in revealing the full extent of its activities may be the result of past public relations flops. In 1999, UNFPA faced public criticism after it was revealed that it had distributed reproductive health kits to Albanian refugee camps. The Population Research Institute, among others, claimed that UNFPA had "constructed a 'social marketing' campaign to fabricate demand" for contraceptives and abortifacients among a "captive audience" of refugees.
According to its mandate, UNFPA should not participate in any efforts to increase access to abortion or to provide the medical or technical expertise to facilitate abortion. However, numerous reports from both governmental and nongovernmental sources reveal that UNFPA aggressively promotes abortion.
Copyright 2004 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute). Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427
New York, New York 10017
In its January 6 press release, the latest and most explicit to date, UNFPA has requested $28 million in donations for, among other things, "the reestablishment of basic reproductive health services" in Indonesia, the re-establishment of "reproductive health services," purchases of "reproductive health commodities" and promotion of "adolescent reproductive health" in the Maldives, and to meet "urgent reproductive health needs" and "restore" and raise awareness of "emergency reproductive health services" in Sri Lanka.
According to UNFPA's "Reproductive Health in Emergency Situations" manual, the "reproductive health needs" of refugees include "guaranteeing the availability of free condoms." Indeed, UNFPA's website says that "Free condoms are among the first reproductive health supplies to reach people caught in a crisis situation...UNFPA provides both male and female condoms in emergencies."
The manual also describes the "reproductive health kits" developed by UNFPA for "the initial acute phase of the emergency," which include "condoms," "oral and injectable contraceptives" including the abortifacient morning-after pills, and "IUD[s]." The kits also contain manual vacuum aspirators, portable abortion devices that are easily used in primitive conditions such as refugee areas.
The supplies in the kits are "stored by UNFPA in preparation for immediate distribution when an earthquake, flood...or other crisis arises." Thus, UNFPA is able to "mount a quick response to emergencies, especially in the initial stages [and] can ship out supplies of condoms and other commodities within a few days." In 2003, UNFPA shipped out over 300 of these "reproductive health kits" to 34 "emergency destinations." [Each reproductive health kit is designed to assist populations totaling between 10,000-150,000 for up to three months.] UNFPA has not disclosed whether it is providing these kits for tsunami refugees.
UNFPA's increasing caution in revealing the full extent of its activities may be the result of past public relations flops. In 1999, UNFPA faced public criticism after it was revealed that it had distributed reproductive health kits to Albanian refugee camps. The Population Research Institute, among others, claimed that UNFPA had "constructed a 'social marketing' campaign to fabricate demand" for contraceptives and abortifacients among a "captive audience" of refugees.
According to its mandate, UNFPA should not participate in any efforts to increase access to abortion or to provide the medical or technical expertise to facilitate abortion. However, numerous reports from both governmental and nongovernmental sources reveal that UNFPA aggressively promotes abortion.
Copyright 2004 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute). Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427
New York, New York 10017
7.07.2004
Abortifacients...The Other Forbidden Grief
By Janet Morana and Theresa Burke, Ph.D.
We’ve learned a good deal about the emotional and spiritual pain of abortion. Aside from surgical procedures, the Pill, the IUD, and other hormonal "contraceptives" such as the morning after pill, Depro- Provera and Norplant can also cause an abortion of human life.
Ovulation is not always suppressed by oral contraceptives. In these cases, the egg is fertilized, conception takes place, and a new human being begins to develop. These abortifacients interfere with the pregnancy by changing the lining of the uterus so that a newly conceived child cannot implant in the womb. This hostile environment causes the child to die.
Janet Morana, Associate Director of Priests for Life and co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, shares her personal story:
"Three months before my wedding date I started taking birth control pills. I continued taking the pill for two years until it seemed like it was time to start a family... Eventually, I had a tubal ligation.
"As I began to study the teachings of the Church I learned about God's beautiful plan for marriage, including what NFP was all about.
"My grief finally hit me as I watched a video about the wonder of life and I realized completely what taking the birth control pills really meant: aborting new life. I came to grips with the fact that I had not only shut myself off to life, but had also destroyed an unknown number of children. At the end of that video I began to sob uncontrollably. I was overwhelmed with sudden feelings of grief and remorse. I was able to come to grips with these feelings of grief and loss recently at a Rachel's Vineyard Retreat. It was a first step in having my feelings validated, and I began to deal with my loss in a new light."
The Church has always asserted that the method by which a child is killed, or the age at which the killing occurs, do not make an abortion any less real or wrong. The Church can therefore serve at the forefront in ministry to the countless hearts wounded by abortifacients. Our church continues to be a prophetic guide in a new movement to re-claim inner voices that have been silenced, paralysed and obscured by the demands of a contraceptive and abortive culture.
Priests for Life invites all who have experienced the grief of abortion to share your testimony. Contact janet@priestsforlife.org
To find out more information about attending a Rachel's Vineyard Retreats for healing after abortion, visit www.rachelsvineyard.org
We’ve learned a good deal about the emotional and spiritual pain of abortion. Aside from surgical procedures, the Pill, the IUD, and other hormonal "contraceptives" such as the morning after pill, Depro- Provera and Norplant can also cause an abortion of human life.
Ovulation is not always suppressed by oral contraceptives. In these cases, the egg is fertilized, conception takes place, and a new human being begins to develop. These abortifacients interfere with the pregnancy by changing the lining of the uterus so that a newly conceived child cannot implant in the womb. This hostile environment causes the child to die.
Janet Morana, Associate Director of Priests for Life and co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, shares her personal story:
"Three months before my wedding date I started taking birth control pills. I continued taking the pill for two years until it seemed like it was time to start a family... Eventually, I had a tubal ligation.
"As I began to study the teachings of the Church I learned about God's beautiful plan for marriage, including what NFP was all about.
"My grief finally hit me as I watched a video about the wonder of life and I realized completely what taking the birth control pills really meant: aborting new life. I came to grips with the fact that I had not only shut myself off to life, but had also destroyed an unknown number of children. At the end of that video I began to sob uncontrollably. I was overwhelmed with sudden feelings of grief and remorse. I was able to come to grips with these feelings of grief and loss recently at a Rachel's Vineyard Retreat. It was a first step in having my feelings validated, and I began to deal with my loss in a new light."
The Church has always asserted that the method by which a child is killed, or the age at which the killing occurs, do not make an abortion any less real or wrong. The Church can therefore serve at the forefront in ministry to the countless hearts wounded by abortifacients. Our church continues to be a prophetic guide in a new movement to re-claim inner voices that have been silenced, paralysed and obscured by the demands of a contraceptive and abortive culture.
Priests for Life invites all who have experienced the grief of abortion to share your testimony. Contact janet@priestsforlife.org
To find out more information about attending a Rachel's Vineyard Retreats for healing after abortion, visit www.rachelsvineyard.org
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