RU-486 Next On The Fetus Fanatic Hitlist?

I heard of reports that a bill in the Senate would suspend FDA approval of RU-486 due to spurious falsehoods propagated by Senator DeMint.

Check it out for such gems as:
"The reported risk of death associated with RU-486 is ten times greater the risk associated with surgical abortions. The death rate associated with surgical abortion is one in a million. By contrast, the reported risk of death associated with RU-486 is higher than one in 100,000. "
- Sen. DeMint

Sen. DeMint's press release is here.

Every single claim in the release is false.

Once again, a piece of legislation without any basis in reality has been enacted.

Long.Live.Propaganda-Based.Medicine!

Here's the condensed version of the facts Sen. DeMint lied about:
-- 6 reported deaths in women using RU-486/misoprostol.
-- 1 case has been determined to be unrelated to abortion/meds, 1 case is still under investigation.
-- 4 cases where, according to the FDA, [w]e do not know whether using Mifeprex or misoprostol caused these deaths.

Of the six fatalities, three involved the rare bacterium Clostridium sordellii. In four cases, women were given part of the drug regimen vaginally, an unapproved method.

Contrast that to reported deaths involving C. sordellii infection unrelated to ETOPs: 8 cases after giving birth, 2 cases following miscarriages, and 1 death linked to infection during the woman's menstrual period. So...not always linked to using RU-486, huh?

But wait, there's more!

According to the FDA, the off label regimen used in the cases under discussion was 1 tablet of RU-486 (200 mg) orally, followed by 4 tablets of misoprostol (800 mcg) pv.

[The FDA-approved regimen is 3 tablets of RU-486 (600 mg) orally, followed by 2 tablets of misoprostol (400 mcg) orally.]

All these deaths occurred in patients who used only 1/3 of the FDA-approved RU-486 dose po, but double the misoprostol dose administered pv.