Adverse Events Is One Way To Put It

Abortion Drug Adverse Events Reported: Reports Include Infection and Severe Bleeding (Salynn Boyles, WedMD Medical News, via Brothers Judd)

The FDA received reports of 607 adverse events involving the abortion drug RU-486 over a four-year period, it was reported this week.

The adverse events included five reported deaths and 68 cases of severe bleeding that required transfusions.

Late last month, federal officials confirmed that five women who died of toxic shock syndrome within a week of taking the drug to induce abortions had the same rare bacterial infection. Four of the deaths occurred in California and one in Canada. Three of these deaths were not among those included in the FDA’s 607 events.

The news set off a new round of calls by abortion opponents for the FDA to remove the drug, also known as Mifeprex, from the market. Danco Laboratories — the maker of Mifeprex — did not respond to a request for comment in time for the publication of this story.

According to the new report, a total of eight deaths have been blamed on RU-486, which was approved for use in the U.S. in September of 2000 for the termination of early pregnancies. Since that time, more than 460,000 doses of the drug have been distributed.

In addition to the five toxic shock deaths, a woman in Tennessee died from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy after taking the abortion drug, a Swedish teen died from a massive hemorrhage, and a woman in the U.K. died for unclear reasons.