RU Counting?

Ashli directed me to Brian.

Brian said that five women, dead from RU-486 abortions in the US, got their fatal doses at Planned Parenthood. (at 11:27 on the audio). I questioned him about this, posting:

The women who died, two (Holly Patterson and Chanelle Bryant) got their abortion drugs at PP, two (Oriene Shevin and Vivian Tran) at National Abortion Federation members, and one (Brenda Vise) at an unlicensed facility in Tennessee. Holly, Chanelle, Vivian, and Oriene died of sepsis. Brenda died of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that the "clinic" failed to diagnose.

I got an email from Brian thanking me, and pointing me to his source. I think he got a bit caught up in the moment and mis-spoke about five dead women that he knew of getting their abortion drugs at Planned Parenthood, but the source did point me to something troubling. The tally -- six dead in the United States -- is one more death than I'd known about. And there's this:

The F.D.A. has now received reports that six women in the United States died after taking RU-486, or Mifeprex. .... The two most recent deaths and two of the previous four underwent their procedures at Planned Parenthood clinics, a spokeswoman said.

Again, I only know of two women -- Holly and Chanelle -- who got their drugs at Planned Parenthood. Does the FDA know of two more? Or was the spokeswoman confused and attributing the National Abortion Federation deaths to Planned Parenthood? And what of the sixth woman that I don't know about?

I went poking around the FDA web site and found this page, the testimony of Dr. Janet Woodcock, Deputy Commissioner for Operations at the FDA. In particular I focused on this section, with my notes in italics and parenthesis:

Deaths Reported After Use of Mifepristone

FDA is aware of 12 deaths possibly involving the use of mifepristone in women. Nine of these deaths were in the U.S. (I only knew of five.) Of these, five were determined to be related to infections (I only knew of four -- Holly, Chanelle, Oriene, and Vivian, one involved an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy (Brenda), one appears unlikely to be related to the use of mifepristone (Was it still related to abortion, or was somebody misusing the drug in another way?), one was determined to be unrelated to either the medical abortion or the use of mifepristone and misoprostol, and one that is currently under investigation appears not to have involved the administration of misoprostol and appears to be unrelated to the use of mifepristone. In addition, there were three deaths in other countries related to mifepristone and misoprostol induced abortion. These 12 deaths are described below:

• Five deaths in U.S. women associated with mifepristone and misoprostol induced medical abortion, with what appears to be a rapidly fatal toxin-mediated shock syndrome
  
• * Four of these five, all in California, were confirmed to involve a rare anaerobic bacterium, Clostridium sordellii (C. sordellii). All involved the use of mifepristone 200 mg orally, followed by 800 mcg of misoprostol inserted intravaginally, a regimen that is not part of the FDA-approved labeling. (Holly, Chanelle, Oriene, and Vivian)
  
• * One U.S. woman from the west, whose death was confirmed to involve a different bacterium, Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens). This case involved the use of mifepristone 200 mg orally, followed by 800 mcg of misoprostol inserted intravaginally, a regimen that is not part of the approved labeling. (One I did not know about. Does anybody have information on this woman?)
  
• One death in a U.S. woman who had an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is a contraindication for the use of mifepristone. (Brenda)
  
• One death involving a woman who initially had an unsuccessful attempted surgical abortion, followed by an unsuccessful medical abortion involving mifepristone, and then followed by a second and successful surgical abortion. The woman was hospitalized approximately one month after taking mifepristone, and she died approximately 24 hours after admission during a hysterectomy. There was no autopsy, but pathology findings included a degenerated, pus-filled uterine fibroid. Cultures were negative for any Clostridial bacteria. Based on the available evidence at this time, FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do not believe this death was related to the use of mifepristone. (Though this does appear to be an abortion death. Does anybody have information on this woman?
  
• One death in the northeastern U.S. was determined to be unrelated to either the medical abortion or the use of mifepristone and misoprostol.
  
• One death in the southwestern U.S. is still under investigation, but appears not to have involved the administration of misoprostol, and appears to be unrelated to the medical abortion or the use of mifepristone.
  
• One death in Canada of a woman who died during participation in a clinical trial. This death was due to sepsis involving C. sordellii.
  
• One death in Sweden of woman as a result of severe hemorrhage related to a medical abortion.
  
• One death of a British woman was attributed to gastric (stomach) bleeding from an ulcer.

The four California deaths, plus the Canadian case, were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2005, by CDC scientists. Since that time, CDC has been actively seeking additional cases across the country. FDA is aware that CDC has identified two additional cases which appear to be unrelated to the use of mifepristone:

• A death from the midwest in a woman who had a second trimester medical abortion employing misoprostol and laminaria (a moisture absorbing medical device inserted into the vagina to stimulate cervical dilation), but not mifepristone. This woman had C. perfringens. (Another abortion death. Does anybody know anything about this woman?)
  
• A toxin-mediated infectious death due to C. sordellii in a woman who initially was reported to have had a medical abortion. However, the woman had appendicitis and pneumonia, not a uterine infection, and CDC has been unable (despite extensive investigation) to find evidence that she had an abortion or had ever been pregnant.

The cases of women with C. sordellii infection are of great concern to FDA and CDC. C. sordellii is a rare infection and has been reported in the literature since the 1930s. The largest case series, published in 1989 by McGregor, Soper, and colleagues in the obstetrical literature, describes cases after vaginal delivery and Cesarean section, as well as a case of spontaneous endometritis. All developed a fatal shock syndrome. Other literature describes infectious illnesses in intravenous drug users and in organ transplant recipients.

Well, I have to leave for work now, so I can't do any further research at the moment. But please do poke around, at the FDA site and elsewhere. Maybe even contact the FDA directly. If the New York Times was right in citing an FDA spokeswoman's statement that four of the dead in the US died after getting the drugs at Planned Parenthood, then it looks like the two mystery women above may have died after abortions at Planned Parenthood. Since this is still the midst of 40 Days for Life, there's a lot of prayer going on so now is a good time to do research to bring into the light what had been kept in the darkness.

Let's keep each other posted.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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