RU486 Deaths Revealed in Britain.

Just a few months after news that the death of American teenager Holly Patterson was associated with the abortifacient RU486, word comes from across the Atlantic that at least two deaths in Britain may have been connected to the abortion pill. It brings to five the number of women who "have died due to bleeding or infection linked to the drug in France and the United States since its introduction in 1988," according to the London Telegraph (1/08/2004).

Yet even while acknowledging the deaths of two RU486 patients in Britain, the government has hedged about the abortion pill's responsibility.

"The reporting of suspected adverse drug reaction does not necessarily mean that the drug was responsible," British public health minister Melanie Johnson told the Telegraph. "Many factors, such as the medical condition that is being treated, other pre-existing illnesses or other medication might have contributed."

British pro-life leaders were not satisfied by the public health minister's tepid admission. "I hope this serves as a warning to women on just how dangerous these powerful drugs are," Jack Scarisbrick, national chair of the British group Life, told the Telegraph. "Why haven't we been told this before, though?"

"There's a good chance that if these two women had not taken RU-486, they would not have died, and given how unreliable the reporting system is, if two deaths have been reported there are probably 20 others that went unreported," Scarisbrick told the Telegraph.

The Telegraph reported how the revelation of the two deaths comes just four months after the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, backed by the Family Planning Association, petitioned the government to ease restrictions on RU486's use by reducing the number of visits a woman would need to make. Currently, women using the abortion pill in Britain make three visits to the abortionist.

British women currently receive RU486 at the first visit, the effect of which is to shut down the baby's life support system. They return two days later to take misoprostol, a prostaglandin which initiates contractions to expel the child. Women then return a week or so later for a third visit to confirm that there has been a "complete" abortion.