RU486 Mifepristone: Misconceptions, Myths and Morals (2nd ed.)

Description

A classic text for health activists and feminists interested in the complexities of how drugs are developed, marketed, and sold to women around the world, this book reviews the unusual history of the French abortion pill RU-486. Critical of the positive claims made for RU-486, it argues that its promotion is filled with myths and misconceptions. Scrutinizing the science and politics behind RU-486, this account examines how the pill benefits the medical profession, drug companies, and government health economies and offers no advantage to women. Topics include the safety and effectiveness of RU-486, whether or not RU-486 privatizes and de-medicalizes abortion, and the dangerous effects of prostaglandins. This updated edition includes a new introduction.

PREFACE

05/08/26PREFACE : 10

‘surgical’ abortion (although no cutting is involved),

!!! Dismemberment occurs!

05/08/26PREFACE : 13

RU 486/PG was only available in France (since 1988, for pregnancy termination up to 49 days from the last period),

05/08/26PREFACE : 13

49 days

7 weeks!

05/08/26PREFACE : 14

UK (since 1991, up to 63 days

9 weeks!

05/08/26PREFACE : 14

it took until the year 2000 for The Population Council (who had been given the patent from French manufacturer Roussel Uclaf) and its licensee, private company Danco Laboratories, to distribute RU 486 as Mifeprex in the USA, available for pregnancy termination up to 49 days from the last period

05/08/26PREFACE : 14

(La favola dell’aborto facile. Miti e realtà della pillola RU 486 by Assuntina Morresi and Eugenia Roccella, 2006/2010),

05/08/26PREFACE : 16

It lasts at least three days (sometimes weeks).

05/08/26PREFACE : 16

Further doses of 200 µm misoprostol are added three times a day on the subsequent two days if the pregnancy is not expelled (completely).

05/08/26PREFACE : 17

RU 486/PG abortion requires clear estimation of early pregnancy age (best with a transvaginal ultrasound) and a mandatory checkup two weeks after the procedure. It is a drawn-out, multi-step abortion. It fails on average in 5–8% of cases (but 10% is not unusual).

05/08/26PREFACE : 17

It implies knives and cutting (which is incorrect as the much earlier technique of ‘sharp’ curettage is no longer used).

05/08/26PREFACE : 20

Sitruk-Ware confirms that an average of 10% of women suffered from excessive bleeding, another 1.4% required hemorrhage-controlling curettage, and 0.25% a blood transfusion.

05/08/26PREFACE : 24

incomplete termination occurred in 5.9% of women using RU 486/PG compared with 0.4% in ‘surgical’ abortion

05/08/26PREFACE : 26

“STOP is more effective than MTOP, being associated with lower failure rates (and hence lower rates of surgical evacuation) and lower rates of unplanned and emergency admission”

05/08/26PREFACE : 28

those women who understand the precise action of RU 486 – that it stops nutrients reaching the implanted embryo – might be very disturbed by this method of terminating their growing embryo’s existence

05/08/26PREFACE : 30

only between 1 and 10% of adverse reactions to medicines are ever reported to the FDA; in other words the real numbers of adverse effects could be 10 or even 100 times higher

05/08/26PREFACE : 31

the drug may inhibit mechanisms that moderate immunity. In cases of toxic shock, the body’s immune response becomes lethal

05/08/26PREFACE : 32

the inherent antiglucocorticoid effect of RU 486 that causes the women’s increased susceptibility to infection

05/08/26PREFACE : 32

in RU 486/PG abortions we are dealing with two drugs, each with the capacity to reduce women’s ability to cope with infection.

05/08/26PREFACE : 33

Following the FDA’s advice would mean that close to 100% of women undergoing an RU 486/PG abortion would have to contact the abortion provider, but would no doubt be reassured.

05/08/26PREFACE : 33

as the tragic deaths from septic infections have shown, the infection can develop quickly, doesn’t respond to antibiotics and may lead to fatal toxic shock syndrome within hours – just one of the inherent dangers in this substandard abortion method

05/08/26PREFACE : 33

‘RU-486 Suspension and Review Act of 2005’).

05/08/26PREFACE : 33

www.abortionpillrisks.org

05/08/26PREFACE : 36

women suffer from debilitating fatigue and depression for months post-RU486/PG abortions

05/13/26PREFACE : 61

all women undergoing a RU 486/PG abortion should begin the procedure with a transvaginal ultrasound

05/13/26PREFACE : 62

there is a mandatory second examination (sometimes another ultrasound), two weeks after the RU 486 and misoprostol were taken.

05/13/26PREFACE : 63

“My thinking is that as we get more used to using this drug, that follow-up surgical interventions will come down …” (in Walker, 7 May 2011).

so basically Planned Barrenhood can profit off a toxic, unholy alliance with Big Pharma

06/09/26PREFACE : 74

in PREFACE

left off here, as it’s mostly Australia-specific