RESPECT LIFE
Overcoming despair with hope RU 486: Is it really easier and safer?
At some stage in their lives, just over half What is RU 486 and how does But is RU 486 a panacea for women as of all women experience an unplanned it work? abortion advocates claim, or is it putting pregnancy.1 For many women, their initial women’s lives at risk? Is the potential cost to RU 486 (mifepristone) induces abortion by shock fades and the reality of motherhood women’s health too high for this so-called preventing the continued development of becomes a source of unexpected joy. Sadly the unborn child. It is an artificial steroid solution? for others, continuing with the pregnancy that blocks progesterone, a hormone needed becomes difficult. How safe is RU 486 compared to continue a pregnancy. A second drug, to surgical abortion? Anna Romano found herself in this misoprostol, a powerful prostaglandin (PG) situation. Anna thought that she had that causes uterine contractions, is given RU 486/PG abortion is promoted as found the man of her dreams, but upon around 24–48 hours later to expel ‘safe, effective, quick and more natural’. discovering she was pregnant found that he the embryo. Women often have the impression that was married and already had a family of his This combination of RU 486 and they can take a few pills and their pregnancy own. He refused to support her and insisted prostaglandin (RU 486/PG) is referred to will just disappear. They are told they may that she have an abortion. Anna says she as a medical abortion (or chemical abortion). experience some bleeding similar to a heavy felt humiliated and betrayed. In desperation Sometimes this method fails and women still period, and they can get on with their lives. she wrote a letter to the Pope asking for require a surgical abortion. But is it really that simple? guidance. (See Anna’s story). Currently in Australia RU 486 is used to end RU 486 has been approved for use in Many women in similar situations feel pregnancies up to 49 days gestation. Australia without requiring an ultrasound panicked, and find it hard to think clearly to confirm gestational age and without about their future; their boyfriends may RU 486 was recently listed on the adequate monitoring to ensure that the abandon them or insist that they have an Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). abortion is complete and bleeding is not abortion. Abortion is often presented to This means that the price will drop making excessive. them as a way out, a solution, a ‘choice’ and it more widely accessible. Supporters claim a ‘right’. Rather than being offered genuine that this will expand women’s ‘reproductive A large South Australian study looked at alternatives to abortion, the only ‘choice’ choices’, giving them greater access to abortions performed in 2009 and 2010, many women are given is between different chemical abortion as an alternative to surgical comparing chemical abortion to surgical methods of abortion, between surgical abortion. Advocates claim RU 486 is a abortion. Adelaide-based doctors abortion and the abortion drug RU 486. ‘miracle drug’ and the ‘moral right of women’. Ea Mulligan and Hayley Messenger found Respect Life Abortion drug RU 486: program A superficial response to women in need
Anna’s story 5 September, 2013 (Romereports): Women’s experience of RU 486/PG Anna is a 35-year-old woman who lives in Rome. She found out she was Leslie’s story pregnant, but the child’s father told her that he was married, and that he wouldn’t take care of the baby. He advised her to get an abortion. Leslie was 21 years old when she took the ‘abortion Desperate, she wrote to Pope Francis to ask him for advice. pill’: ‘I was confused and really wanted someone to help me make the best decision; nobody ever But the biggest surprise came when Anna got a call from Pope Francis himself. told me that I could carry my baby if I wanted, She asserts that it was a short and emotional phone call. The Pope asked they just kept giving me options about abortion her not to let people rob her of hope. He assured her that when her baby is procedures.’15 She had previously taken the born, if she couldn’t find a priest to baptise him, he would do it himself. ‘Morning After’ pill and found it ‘painful yet In return, Anna guaranteed him that if it’s a baby boy, she’ll name him bearable’, so she believed the clinic when they Francis, in the Pope’s honour. advised her that RU 486 ‘would be like a really heavy period’. www.romereports.com/palio/pope-calls-single-mother-brave-offers-to- baptize-her-child-english-10933.html I experienced the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my Also see Catholic Herald UK Story: life … I thought I was dying because [the cramps] www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2013/09/06/single-mother-says-her-heart- were so intense. I … told my family members that is-filled-with-joy-after-call-from-pope-francis I was extremely sick, feeling too ashamed to tell Photo by Nick Pisa/www.catholicherald.co.uk by Photo what was really happening … I was alone and afraid … More effective? that there was a higher incidence of serious When I finally had enough energy to shower … complications for chemical abortion Both methods involve risks. The bleeding I bled so much that it clogged the drain … It was compared to surgical abortion. Women who and pain is more significant with a even more horrifying than it sounds. This was all had a chemical abortion were also more chemical termination.11 The combination done in my own home … the home where I had to likely to present to a hospital emergency of RU 486/PG will terminate a pregnancy in live after this experience. department and to require hospital around 90 per cent of cases.12 In the 10 per admission than women who had undergone The emotional pain this caused made it almost cent of cases where it fails, women will require surgical abortion.3 unbearable to be at home after that … I a surgical abortion to end the pregnancy or, in immediately felt a loss. I didn’t want to hear people Despite these findings, Dr Mulligan claims some cases, to stop uncontrolled bleeding. In mention the word baby, I didn’t want to see babies, that ‘the complication rate for both forms comparison, surgical abortion has a ‘success the sight of a baby caused me to nearly break 4 13 of abortion was low’. In SA, ‘almost all rate’ of around 98–99 per cent. down. I lived in a denial period after that, trying abortions are performed in public hospitals Quicker? to pretend that nothing had happened and that I and both mifepristone and misoprostol are was okay … administered in them.’5 Complication rates in While surgical abortion is over within about other Australian states where women are sent 30 minutes, a chemical abortion takes days, [RU 486] is a horrible drug … I hate that they say home to take the drugs may be higher. sometimes even weeks. And if the chemical it’s safe, I hate that they say it’s simple, I hate that abortion fails a surgical abortion will be they don’t tell you what you will really experience, In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods required to remove the foetal remains, or to I hate that they don’t care about your heart and Administration (TGA), Australia’s stop the bleeding. the emotional effects it has on you. I hate that the regulatory authority for medical drugs truth is not being told … that RU 486 … is not only and devices, has been informed of ‘132 More natural? destroying the lives of babies, but the lives of women. cases of continuing pregnancy requiring Abortion advocates promote chemical I am sick and tired of women being manipulated surgical abortion, 23 cases of haemorrhage abortion as more ‘natural’ than surgical and lied to. The effects of having to go through an requiring blood transfusion and 599 cases abortion. abortion at home are huge. The safest place one of incomplete abortion requiring surgery’ should have is home, and to experience the worst following chemical abortion. ‘About one in However, as Edouard Sakiz, former chairman thing of your life at home is a nightmare … It is not 30 women will need a second termination of Roussel Uclaf (the French company an easy out, it is the worst pain in the world. procedure.’6 which developed RU 486), told the French newspaper Le Monde: ‘As abortifacient Dr Renate Klein, biologist, social scientist, procedures go, RU 486 is not at all easy to women’s health researcher and former How is RU 486 different from the use … True, no anaesthetic is required. But Associate Professor in Women’s Studies at ‘Morning After’ Pill? a woman who wants to end her pregnancy Deakin University, Melbourne, points out has to ‘live’ with her abortion for at least a that over the years promoters of chemical week using this technique. It’s an appalling abortion have assured us that RU 486/PG psychological ordeal.’14 abortion is safe. Despite mentioning the many complications women face, the pattern More private? is always the same: they list the many adverse RU 486 is promoted to younger women as reactions but still declare the method ‘safe more private. Women can take the pills at and effective’. As she observes, readers might home, avoid going to an abortion clinic, not come to the same conclusion.7 and steer clear of surgery and anaesthetic. Up to 2011 at least 21 women around Taken at home, often alone, without family the world had died after taking RU 486, or friends knowing, young women are including a death in Australia in 2010 at a vulnerable, especially if they experience a Marie Stopes Clinic.8 The Clinic blamed the life threatening haemorrhage or infection. woman for not seeking medical attention.9 Medical staff may have difficulty treating them The TGA is not keeping a record of RU 486 if they are unaware that they are dealing with related deaths.10 (See Holly’s story). complications from a chemical abortion. More Accessible? Holly Patterson visited Planned Parenthood in California in September Holly’s story 2003, when she was about seven weeks pregnant. She was reportedly Promoters of RU 486 claim that it will provide given RU 486/PG to take to end her unplanned pregnancy. A week later she women living in remote and rural areas with died from a massive bacterial infection following a failed RU 486 abortion. orbis C greater access to abortion. Two days after she died, Holly’s sobbing father Monty told reporters that However, given French researcher Regine Sitruk- ‘there is no quick fix for pregnancy, no magic pill’. He later wrote, Ware’s warning that women living in rural areas in “Everything that could go wrong went wrong … At 18 years old, Holly had both western and developing countries should not her whole life ahead of her. The decision to terminate an early pregnancy by use RU 486/PG unless they have access to follow- medical abortion was a fatal choice … Holly must have been convinced that up care, it is bewildering that promoters continue she would not be at risk of health complications or death. 16 to make such claims. In fact, they should be Medical abortion is promoted as safe and effective ... [it] cost Holly her life.” n icle/ C hro a n Fra cisco warning women in rural and remote areas—who Since Holly’s death, Monty has worked to educate women and their may be many hours’ drive from hospital emergency families about the risks of abortion drugs. departments—that chemical abortion is more See Monty’s website: Abortion Pill Risks—Just the Facts dangerous than surgical abortion, and advising www.abortionpillrisks.org against it. See video: Abortion Pill—Health Risks and Facts In addition, Sitruk-Ware warns that women www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtLe2PR5j54 with malnutrition should not use this method of S © Michael Macor/ Photo abortion, which would make it unsuitable for many women in developing countries who suffer from Why is RU 486 being promoted? 17 chronic anaemia. Is RU 486 a panacea? Promoters of RU 486 aim to make abortion Is RU 486 use safe in the long-term? No. RU 486/PG gives women another more acceptable to the general public and more widely available to women in rural and There have been no long-term studies conducted method of abortion. remote areas. They are trying to ‘normalise’ on the safety of RU 486. Early studies excluded This is different from offering solutions, abortion. Caroline Westoff, an obstetrician and women who were under 18 or over 45, or who options or support so women don’t feel gynaecologist, told the New York Times that suffered from asthma or epilepsy, or kidney, abortion is their only ‘choice.’ Sadly, many ‘one of my real, and I think realistic, hopes for pulmonary, gastro-intestinal and liver disorders. women are not even offered alternatives this method is that it will help get abortion The effect of RU 486/PG abortion on the health of to abortion, and, in a panic and feeling back into the medical mainstream and out of women with these conditions is therefore unknown.18 abandoned, they feel compelled to this ghettoised place it’s been in.’22 Women’s health activists, radical feminists and ‘choose’ abortion. They should be offered Abortion advocates are having trouble others have been warning about the dangers of non-directive counselling to help them replacing ageing abortion providers as many RU 486 for decades. As early as 1988 they were consider all their options, and to make younger doctors are unwilling to be involved saying that, ‘The promoters of RU 486 abortion them aware of the support available in surgical abortion. Advocates aim to increase do not acknowledge these potential dangers to should they continue their pregnancy. the number of doctors willing to prescribe women’s health and lives, nor even the more widely Women are more likely to choose in abortion pills by convincing them that they recognised relationship between prostaglandins accord with their deeply held values can be somehow less directly involved in the and cardiovascular risk. Despite these numerous and in favour of motherhood if they are death of the unborn child, and that there is less unanswered questions, thousands of women supported and unpressured. chance of being identified. It is cheaper and have already been given a drug, whose molecular New methods of abortion will not solve easier for the industry, and drug companies, mechanism and biochemical properties are not Australia’s abortion problem. We have to dispense pills rather than to staff medical extensively researched, let alone understood. Once one of the highest rates of abortion in the centres or provide theatres. more, as with the contraceptive pill, DES, fertility world. At least one in three Australian drugs and hormone replacement therapy, healthy women will have an abortion at some In addition, after 40 years of legalised abortion, women are used as living test-sites for an “exciting stage in their lifetime.20 Abortion by many women have experienced the pain, 19 new drug.”’ any method remains a tragic choice. indignity and heartache of surgical abortion, Whichever way it is done, abortion is with at least 10–30 per cent suffering severe and 23 a reflection that as a society we are not prolonged psychological distress as a result. RU 486/PG is for use in early pregnancy (up to addressing the real needs of women. Therefore the industry has developed a new way 49 days after conception) to induce a chemical of ‘selling abortion’ to women, claiming it is a abortion. The ‘Morning After’ Pill (MAP) is used One in five women report being coerced cheaper, easier, more private method. within the first few days (up to five) after sexual into sex21, sometimes under the influence intercourse to prevent pregnancy. of drugs and alcohol. In a worsening New methods of abortion are not the answer. climate of violence against women, how Every abortion destroys a human life and Although the MAP is marketed as ‘emergency hurts women. contraception’, it can also work as a potential will RU 486 help tackle this difficult abortifacient. The supplier of the MAP reports that issue? How will it lead to a culture of Cheaper methods of abortion such as RU 486 it can work in three different ways: It can (1) prevent greater respect for women? How will only serve to cheapen the value of unborn ovulation; (2) slow down the transport of the egg it stop women being used and feeling human life and of motherhood. Abortion and sperm in an attempt to prevent fertilization; depersonalised? How will it overcome remains a forced choice when no other real and (3) discourage implantation of an embryo in the domestic violence when women refuse lining of the uterus.2 choices are offered. RU 486 is not a solution to submit to abortion? How will this to the circumstances that lead women to If a woman has ovulated or is ovulating then the encourage Australian men to treat all undergo terminations. It does nothing to MAP can act as an abortificient. women and their children with the challenge social structures to find new ways of dignity and respect they deserve? Is giving The MAP contains very high doses of progestogen, allowing women to continue their pregnancies up to 50 times more than the oral contraceptive women abortion pills the best and most without having to choose between careers or pill. It is available over the counter, whereas a compassionate thing we can do for them? education and family, or the welfare of other prescription is needed for RU 486/PG. family members. Such solutions take time, imagination, resources and effort. It is much hearts all over the world. He said that Pope Pope Francis said: ‘Without mercy we have little easier to give women an abortion pill than to Francis is calling on all of us to be missionaries chance nowadays of entering the world of wounded look for real solutions—easier for everyone in our own communities. persons in need of understanding, forgiveness and except the woman. It is a superficial response love.’ But he says, to women in need. Pope Francis … speaks of love and mercy to give people the context for the Church’s teaching Mercy without truth would be consolation without A New Culture of Life and Love? on abortion. We oppose abortion, not because honesty and is empty chatter. On the other hand, we are mean or old fashioned, but because we however, the truth without mercy would be cold, Sometimes it seems like we are in a modern love people. And that is what we must show off-putting and ready to wound. The truth isn’t David and Goliath struggle against powerful the world … a wet rag that you throw in someone’s face, but forces promoting new forms of abortion a warm cape that you wrap around a person, to around the world. It is tempting to feel The Holy Father talked about the globalisation protect and strengthen them. completely overwhelmed. of indifference—indifference to the suffering of others, to the fate of the unborn, the The Holy Father is showing us very clearly that However, ‘Following Pope John Paul and elderly, the handicapped, the mentally ill and our struggle is not just a political battle or a Pope Benedict, Pope Francis is challenging the immigrants … We must overcome this legal problem, but that we must evangelise and us to embrace the New Evangelisation with indifference in our own lives and help people to humanise the culture, then the world will be safe new ardour, with new boldness and with see that the Church’s teaching is about loving for the unborn, the elderly and [people with a great love for all those whom God places in and caring for everyone. disability]. The Gospel of Life is a Gospel of Mercy. our path.’24 Cardinal Sean O’Malley, reflecting If we are going to get a hearing in today’s world, it on World Youth Day with Pope Francis in The Cardinal explained that a key theme the will be because people recognise that authenticity Rio de Janeiro, said that the new Pope’s spirit Pope keeps returning to is mercy, but that we of our lives and our dedication to building a of compassion and love is touching people’s need truth and mercy in the right balance. civilisation of love.
RU 486: Misconceptions, Myths For God So Loved Organisations offering support: and Morals. Renate Klein, Janice the World: A Pastoral Caroline Chisholm Society Prayer G. Raymond and Lynette Dumble series on Life Issues Ph: (03) 9361 7000 or 1800 134 863, for Life www.carolinechisholmsociety.com.au Written from a This series Open Doors Ringwood Heavenly Father, radical feminist explains the Ph: (03) 9870 7044 or 1800 647 995, perspective, the Church’s www.opendoors.com.au We pray that we might position, first edition of this CatholicCare Melbourne respond with love and book on reaches out in love and Ph: (03) 9287 5555, www.ccam.org.au compassion to all those RU 486 was forgiveness Rachel’s Vineyard Melbourne facing a difficult pregnancy, awarded a to those who so that together we might Human Rights Ph: (03) 9870 7044 or 1800 647 995, have suffered email: [email protected] help to overcome despair Award for non- and provides fiction. It traces resources for with practical help, hope the history, healing. Published by: and joy. science, politics www.godsolovedtheworld.org.au Life, Marriage and Family Office, Amen and use on women of the French Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, abortion pill, RU 486. Although the for Respect Life Sunday 2013–2014. authors support women’s access to Cardinal Knox Centre abortion, they warn that chemical PO BOX 146, East Melbourne, VIC 8002 Access this brochure abortion is ill-conceived and unethical Access t: (03) 9287 5587 e: [email protected] and other in this newly updated edition. THIS DVD w: www.cam.org.au/lifemarriagefamily resources
Endnotes UCM263353.pdf> ‘The real figure could be expected be higher as the There are unconfirmed reports that in 2009 Exelgyn, the European FDA admits that only one in 10 adverse events are reported. Some manufacturer of RU 486, advised the Italian Ministry of Health that critics point out that the number of women who have experience 29 deaths were linked to RU 486. S Ertelt, ‘Abortion drug has killed 29 1 Marie Stopes International, What women want: when faced with an adverse effects could be 10 or even 100 times higher.’ R Klein, JG women, European maker tells Italy’s Government’, LifeNews.com, 31 July unplanned pregnancy, 2006, p. 7, viewed 15 September 2013,