Abortion pill tragedy.(Insider Report)

On September 10, Holly Patterson of Livermore, California, visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hayward to secure an abortion. The unmarried teen, who had recently turned 18, was six to eight weeks pregnant but had not told her parents. She was offered the choice of surgery or the controversial abortion pill RU-486. Opting for the latter, she received the first dose, as well as another drug (misoprostol) which she was to take the next day. Whereas RU-486 blocks progesterone, a hormone that helps maintain pregnancy, misoprostol causes uterine contractions that help terminate the pregnancy.

Four days later, suffering from severe pain and heavy bleeding, Miss Patterson was rushed to a hospital emergency room by her boyfriend (her parents were still unaware of her plight). She was given pain killers and released, but returned on September 17, vomiting and still in great pain. She died that afternoon.

The technical term for RU-486 is mifepristone. It is produced by Danco Laboratories, a self-described "women's health pharmaceutical company," and marketed as an "early option pill" under the brand name Mifeprex. It was approved by the Clinton-era Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000 and, according to Danco, has been used by more than one million women worldwide and about 200,000 within the U.S.

Danco spokeswoman Heather O'Neill told the November 3 Washington Post that the rate of complication for RU-486 usage ...