Two More Women Die After Taking Abortion Pill RU-486

After taking abortion pill RU-486, two more women died in March — one in the U.S. and one in Canada. These recent deaths raise the total to seven women. Used for more than 560,000 abortions in this country, the abortion pill still carries a small risk, affecting slightly over one in 100,000 women. In comparison, the risk of death associated with surgical abortion is only a tenth of the risk of pill-induced abortion, or one in a million.

RU-486 is administered at various abortion clinics. Women are instructed to take another drug, misoprostol, two to three days later. After taking scheduled doses of both drugs, women generally have a miscarriage that takes place at home. Some find the medical abortion preferable or more “natural” than surgery. 


The first five women are known to have died from infection with the bacterium Clostridium sordellii. FDA officials dispute any definitive link between the infections and RU-486 or that women taking abortion pills are more at risk for infection than women who undergo surgical abortion. Dr. Phillip Stubblefield, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University, points out that miscarriage, either natural or induced, can lead to infections.

Dr. Vanessa Cullins of Planned Parenthood Federation of America maintains that both surgical and medication abortion are extremely safe and effective. It is possible that the method of administering the second drug may have been responsible for the infections.

Planned Parenthood and some other U.S. abortion providers had begun instructing women to insert misoprostol vaginally two to three days after taking Mifeprex (RU-486) by mouth. The first five women who died had all inserted the second drug vaginally. In so doing, they may have accidentally introduced bacteria from skin near the anus, and once inside the vaginal canal, the pathogen flourished. In France, where no deaths have been reported, oral administration of both drugs is the standard procedure. Planned Parenthood has announced they are now prescribing misoprostol orally only.

Some physicians have expressed alarm at the seven deaths and are now performing only surgical abortions. Other doctors emphasize that Mifeprex is the only option for women in some isolated rural areas, but advise that patients who have a choice should be steered toward surgical abortions. These physicians are not calling for withdrawal of RU-486 from the market.

Apart from the seven deaths, other effects have been known to occur from medical abortions. In a 1999 study of 377 women, a significant number of those who took the pills to abort had higher levels of pain, nausea, vomiting and problem bleeding than patients who had surgical abortions. In addition, pill-based abortions may be more likely to fail than surgical ones, in which case a surgical follow-up is required.

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