Man Blames Daughter's Death On Abortion Pill Posted: 11-04-06 23:35pm
May 17, 2006 — twelve days after her
18th birthday, holly patterson went to a
planned parenthood in california and was
prescribed ru-486.
Seven days later, she was in the emergency
room, barely conscious and struggling to
breathe. Hours later, she was dead.
Her father, monty patterson, who blames
her death on ru-486, is expected to
testify today on capitol hill in a hearing
on what's called "the medical abortion
pill."
"our message out there to everyone is that
we wouldn't want to have, see anybody have
to go through what we have had to go
through here. In such a short period of
time, our daughter was with us and the
next day she's gone," patterson said.
Ru-486, also known as mifeprex or
mifepristone, is a two-pill process. The
first pill stops the womb from building up
the necessary hormones in preparation for
pregnancy. The second pill, taken two
days or three days later, causes the
uterus to contract and expel the fetus.
Rep. Mark edward souder, r-ind., who
chairs the house government reform
subcommittee on criminal justice, drug
policy and human resources, organized the
hearing. He is an anti-abortion activist
and christian conservative opposed to
ru-486.
Souder, a co-sponsor of a bill called
holly's law — named after patterson —
which would ban the drug, says the goal of
the hearing is not to take the drug off
the market but instead to examine the
health problems associated with it.
Five women, including patterson, have died
from a bacterial infection after taking
ru-486. Roughly 12 other women have
contracted the same infection, without
having taken ru-486, meaning you can't
necessarily blame ru-486, some say.
"if we care about women's health — and I
do — we really need to address this
infection in a concrete and real way,"
said susan wood, a former assistant
commissioner of the fda. "and taking
ru-486 off the market will not
realistically reduce the risk of women
being infected with this bug."
an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 women have
used ru-486 since it was approved in 2000.
There are nine known deaths, which many
doctors say is a solid safety record.
However, critics, including patterson and
some in the medical community, point out
that aside from the handful of deaths
associated with ru-486, there have been
hundreds of hospitalizations.
Serious complications from surgical
abortions are rare, according to the
national abortion federation, an
association of abortion providers in the
united states and canada. About 88
percent of women who obtain abortions are
less than 13 weeks pregnant. Of those, 97
percent report no complications; 2.5
percent have minor complications that can
be handled at the facility; and fewer than
0.5 percent have more serious
complications
I remember reading this story - and ru-486
is not to blame. The infection the girl
contracted was due to fetal matter being
left in the uterus, which can also occur
during miscarriage. Yes it was tragic,
but daddy can't accept the fact that what
happened was an accident, so he needs to
find himself a scapegoat. Also, if the
retard is so opposed to abortion and
ru-486, why did he allow his daughter to
seek an abortion method utilizing the
pills? Maybe she did it without his
knowledge, but who knows.
|
paganangel
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Jun 2005 Posts: 377 Location: VA
Posted: 11-05-06 00:42am
cambion
wrote:
i remember reading this
story - and ru-486 is not to blame. The
infection the girl contracted was due to
fetal matter being left in the uterus,
which can also occur during miscarriage.
Yes it was tragic, but daddy can't accept
the fact that what happened was an accident, so he needs to
find himself a scapegoat. Also, if the
retard is so opposed to abortion and
ru-486, why did he allow his daughter to
seek an abortion method utilizing the
pills? Maybe she did it without his
knowledge, but who
knows.
she was 18...It was not up to him to allow
her. She was old enough to do it herself.
|
Jules
Moderator
Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 3757 Location: Merrie Englande, UK
Thanks: 78
Thanked:66
Posted: 11-05-06 02:18am
It's a very sad story and I think that
more tests should be done on the drug but
there's risks with every drug you take.
Does anyone know the facts behind how this
abortion drug was tested before it came
into wide public use? Was it just tested
on animals and the women who now use it
are guinea-pigs? I can imagine it's a
difficult drug to trial on humans - "you
want an abortion? Great! Wanna try a
new drug that we don't even know if it
works yet? Might only half kill your
baby and cause you untold damage but hey!
It worked on mice, right?"
|
Birch
Supporter
Joined: 07 Nov 2005 Posts: 3963 Location: Bliss,
Thanks: 129
Thanked:12
Posted: 11-05-06 09:31am
purestgreen
wrote:
it's a very sad story and I
think that more tests should be done on
the drug but there's risks with every drug
you take.
Does anyone know the facts behind how this
abortion drug was tested before it came
into wide public use? Was it just
tested on animals and the women who now
use it are guinea-pigs? I can imagine
it's a difficult drug to trial on humans -
"you want an abortion? Great! Wanna
try a new drug that we don't even know if
it works yet? Might only half kill your
baby and cause you untold damage but hey!
It worked on mice, right?"
the problem with this is that a drug of
this nature can only be tested on people.
It's the old dicotomy of animal rights
activists-"if animals are so unlike humans
that we can morally justify testing on
them, then why are we using animals that
are so unlike humans?"
personally, I shy away from taking meds of
any kind-the fda approves the usage of
drugs based on studies paid for by...The
drug companies themselves...Dum dum dum...
|
justgottaloveit
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 04 Nov 2006 Posts: 45
Posted: 11-05-06 21:33pm
paganangel
wrote:
she was 18...It was not up
to him to allow her. She was old enough
to do it
herself.
yup... And she was old enough to ignore
the signs of infection. And she
obviously didn't trust her parents enough
to tell them what was going on. Should
all drugs be banned? After all, they all
carry side effects, most include death.
|
Carifairy
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 12 Nov 2005 Posts: 2610 Location: Charlotte n.c.
Thanks: 12
Thanked:0
Posted: 11-06-06 00:28am
I must explain something to you all.. It
is absolutely not the abortion pill itself
which has killed these women, it is a
bacterial infection whcih was introduced
into the vagina through the use of
cytotec. In case you do not know, vaginal
use of cytotec is the second step of the
medical abortion procedure. It causes
contrcations, and the cervix to open, so
infection is a risk.
The women died of an infection, bacteria
cause infections, not pills.
|
paganangel
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Jun 2005 Posts: 377 Location: VA
Posted: 11-06-06 01:17am
carifairy
wrote:
i must explain something to
you all.. It is absolutely not the
abortion pill itself which has killed
these women, it is a bacterial infection
whcih was introduced into the vagina
through the use of cytotec. In case you
do not know, vaginal use of cytotec is the
second step of the medical abortion
procedure. It causes contrcations, and
the cervix to open, so infection is a
risk.
The women died of an infection, bacteria
cause infections, not
pills.
the pill is what left them open to
infection. So in reality it is the pill
to blame.
|
diamondsz
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 3173 Location: , Candyland-Canada
Thanks: 74
Thanked:104
Posted: 11-06-06 08:47am
paganangel
wrote:
carifairy
wrote:
i must explain something to
you all.. It is absolutely not the
abortion pill itself which has killed
these women, it is a bacterial infection
whcih was introduced into the vagina
through the use of cytotec. In case
you do not know, vaginal use of cytotec is
the second step of the medical abortion
procedure. It causes contrcations, and
the cervix to open, so infection is a
risk.
The women died of an infection, bacteria
cause infections, not
pills.
the pill is what left them open to
infection. So in reality it is the pill
to blame.
in reality it is not from the pill, the
pill did what it was supposed to do and it
was her responsibility to seek a secondary
appt after 2-5 days aftet taking the pill.
I got bacterial infections after having my
kids and I cant blame a pill for that,
basically my body is infection prone, alot
of woman can get these infections from iud
and I was informed against iud as a b/c
method.
|
Tylanas
Especially EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 12985
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 11-06-06 10:30am
paganangel
wrote:
carifairy
wrote:
i must explain something to
you all.. It is absolutely not the
abortion pill itself which has killed
these women, it is a bacterial infection
whcih was introduced into the vagina
through the use of cytotec. In case you
do not know, vaginal use of cytotec is the
second step of the medical abortion
procedure. It causes contrcations, and
the cervix to open, so infection is a
risk.
The women died of an infection, bacteria
cause infections, not
pills.
the pill is what left them open to
infection. So in reality it is the pill
to blame.
her hands are actually to blame, most
likely, as they are what stuck sterile,
packaged pills up into her vagina.
If not her hands, then perhaps she is
prone to infection as dimondz said; some
people just get sick a lot. If all of the
material was not expelled, then it could
have become infected.
There are so many ways she could have
become sick, and almost none of them have
to do with the pill or its effects.
|
Carifairy
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 12 Nov 2005 Posts: 2610 Location: Charlotte n.c.
Thanks: 12
Thanked:0
Posted: 11-06-06 11:57am
Paganangel
the point is that the pill in question was
not ru-486, but the second pill, cytotec.
It causes the cervix to open, and a
consequence can be infection. I
particularly do not like abortion by pill,
I feel that surgical is better for a
variety of reasons, including the
sterility factor.
|
diamondsz
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 3173 Location: , Candyland-Canada
Thanks: 74
Thanked:104
Posted: 11-06-06 12:16pm
carifairy
wrote:
paganangel
the point is that the pill in question was
not ru-486, but the second pill, cytotec.
It causes the cervix to open, and a
consequence can be infection. I
particularly do not like abortion by pill,
I feel that surgical is better for a
variety of reasons, including the
sterility
factor.
the cervix is closed for a reason to
protect the uterus from infection if it
opens there is always a possibility of
infection and like eiri said her hand
could have been dirty!
|
Carifairy
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 12 Nov 2005 Posts: 2610 Location: Charlotte n.c.
Thanks: 12
Thanked:0
Posted: 11-06-06 15:44pm
Correct diamondz...
Her hands could have been not washed
properly, and you need to wash your hands
for at least 2 minutes with vigorous
scrubbing for the washing to be effective.
Many people do not know proper 'medical
grade' handwashing techniques.
|
diamondsz
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 3173 Location: , Candyland-Canada
Thanks: 74
Thanked:104
Posted: 11-06-06 20:36pm
carifairy
wrote:
correct diamondz...
Her hands could have been not washed
properly, and you need to wash your hands
for at least 2 minutes with vigorous
scrubbing for the washing to be effective.
Many people do not know proper 'medical
grade' handwashing
techniques.
if I remeber its actually 45 second with
an antibacterial soap but it needs to be
done vigourously like you said!
