Lost in the wake of Sept. 11 was the announcement that an unidentified Canadian woman had died following a gangrene infection during clinical trials of RU-486. While the mainstream media ignored this issue, the National Catholic Register’s Celeste McGovern did some digging and found that Vancouver abortionist and clinical trial overseer Ellen Wiebe failed to inform participants of the dangers of the abortion cocktail.
McGovern reported in the Oct. 7 NCR that Wiebe admits she did not inform participants that Searle, the manufacturer of misoprostol, one component of the abortion pill, had warned against the use of its product in chemical abortion because of “serious, adverse” effects including uterine bleeding and even maternal death.
In August 2000, Searle said its ulcer medication misoprostol “is not approved for the induction of labour or abortion.” The company said misuse of the drug can cause adverse effects such as a ruptured uterus, vaginal bleeding and “maternal or fetal death.” RU-486 requires misoprostol to expel the baby from the mother’s body by causing contractions after mifepristone kills the unborn child. At the time, former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson said that “RU-486 in itself is not potentially dangerous to women, but misoprostol is, and you have to give them together.” Nathanson reports that women who use RU-486 “bleed for hours at home, having terrible cramps, and end up in emergency rooms.”
Wiebe told McGovern that she “did not consider it important” to notify women of the possible risks because less than “one per cent of women in other clinical trials developed infections.” Richard Carpentier of the
National Council in Human Research, said that Canadian case law (Weiss v. Solomon) says that even if the risk of harm is low during clinical trials, if the effect is grave, participants should be informed.
Campaign Life Coalition British Columbia President John Hof told The Interim, that by any standard, “maternal death is a grave effect of the drug.”
CLC is urging Canadian pro-lifers to place an ad in local newspapers to help find the family of the deceased woman because if she was unable to provide informed consent, her family has legal recourse.
Neither the Population Council (the pro-abortion outfit that owns North American rights for the abortion pill) or Wiebe are releasing details of the death. Trials were taking place in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Sherbrooke and Quebec City although” that does not necessarily mean the woman was from one those cities.”
Hof said, “We need help to reach the woman’s family and inform them that they have legal recourse to compensate them for their loss.” Hof said if the manufacturer of RU-486 is concerned about legal liability, perhaps RU-486 can be kept out of Canada.
Hof urges pro-lifers to put this ad in local newspapers to help find the family of the deceased woman. The family has cause to sue for damages because a fundamental tenet of research – informed consent – was breached.
“Please, either on your own, with fellow pro-lifers, or through your local pro-life or church group, place this ad in your local newspaper.” said John Hof.
INFORMATION WANTED
“RU-486 Woman Dies”
To the family of anyone with information relating to the Sept. 1, 2001 death
of a Canadian woman who died after taking the RU-486 abortion pill.
Please contact:
Campaign Life Coalition B.C.
Box 175, 7101 C 120th St.
Delta, B.C. V4E 2A0
1-800-730-5358
OR 1-604-534-4828
E-mail: jhof@telus.net
You may have legal recourse to compensate you for your loss.
