Study suspended while authorities investigate Woman Dies in Canadian RU486 Trials.

Pro-lifers warned that it would likely happen, but hoped the day would never come. Now, a Canadian woman participating in that country's trials of RU486 is dead, and questions are being raised about whether the abortion drugs she took may have factored in or contributed to her death.

Details are scarce, owing to the reluctance of the pill's promoters to publicize the problem, but facts gleaned from various Canadian and American news sources tell a tragic tale.

According to the September 17, 2001, National Post, a national Canadian newspaper, the unidentified woman came in to take RU486 pills August 23. Two days later she returned to take misoprostol, a prostaglandin which initiates contractions to expel the tiny corpse.

She was bleeding and suffering cramps, typical parts of the chemical abortion process, by day five (August 28), the National Post reports. An ultrasound showed an empty uterus.

The National Post says the woman continued to exhibit negative unspecified side effects and was admitted to the hospital. The woman died September 1, just 10 days after starting her chemical abortion, according to the National Post.

The Population Council, the group holding the U.S. patent and sponsoring the Canadian trials, suspended the studies, reported the death to Canadian and American authorities, and sent its own investigator, but declared through a spokesperson that "as of now, we have no reason to believe that the death is drug-related or study-related" (Reuters Health, 9/14/01).

The claim advanced by the Population Council and the abortionist heading the Canadian trials is that the woman died, not from her abortion, but from severe septic shock brought on by a "rare clostridium infection" (Associated Press, 9/11/01). To evaluate their assertion, it's helpful to look at what is known about such infections.