Abortion Foes Want RU-486 Pill Pulled

As a possible explanation for some harmful side effects, National Institutes of Health investigator Esther Sternberg reported at a recent CDC-FDA meeting on clostridium that the immune systems of rats exposed to RU-486 were badly compromised, suggesting that the same might be happening with women.

Opponents of RU-486 point to the numbers and Sternberg's theory as indications that the drug is unusually dangerous. But Susan F. Wood, former director of the FDA's Office of Women's Health, said they tell a different story.

"The deaths are clearly serious and tragic, but the overall rate of adverse reactions is actually low," said Wood, who is to testify at today's hearing. She said that although serious side effects are often underreported with many drugs, strict reporting requirements required for RU-486 resulted in a full accounting.

The fact that the CDC has identified at least 12 women undergoing miscarriages or childbirth who died from the same clostridium bacteria, she said, indicates that the problem is more widespread than imagined and not limited to users of RU-486.

The RU-486 deaths "are important events that need to be examined," Wood said, "but I believe some people are most interested in trying to identify reasons to pull the drug off the market."

Another scheduled speaker at the hearing is Monty Patterson, father of Holly Patterson. Since she succumbed to a clostridium infection after a medical abortion, her father has pressured federal officials to investigate the risks of RU-486, which he believes should be immediately taken off the market.

"I've been pushing for answers, and there are still many to be given," he said. "I think it's important to look at everything associated with the drug -- how it was approved, whether all the adverse events are being reported, and the science behind its relation to clostridium."

The RU-486 controversy is sometimes confused with the ongoing dispute over Plan B, the "morning after" emergency contraceptive that its manufacturer wants to sell without a prescription. Although RU-486 does cause an abortion, the FDA describes Plan B as a contraceptive that prevents, rather than ends, a pregnancy.