The FDA is said to be strengthening the warnings on mifiprix/Ru-486/the abortion pill. The warnings they're adding seem like a really good idea, and I'm not clear on the reason doctors aren't already talking to patients about this stuff - I know I do.
First: ectopic pregnancies. Shouldn't doctors be checking that there isn't an ectopic pregnancy before they give out mifiprex? All it takes is an ultrasound, the same way they have to check for ectopic pregnancies with other patients who want abortions. If they can't find the fetus, she's either too early or ectopic, right?
Second: The new instructions will tell patients to take the medication guide with them if they go to the hospital. Because most docs know nothing about abortion. Because they sent that girl home when she was hemmoraging. So the problem was that she didn't have appropriate medical attention; perhaps that's Planned Parenthood's fault (the group that sold her the medicine), or, perhaps, part of the problem is that doctors, generally, don't know crap about abortion.
There are a lot of other issues with the new regs I could write about, but it's early, and I'm already full up on anger for the day. The patronizing, paternalistic behavior of this government is unbelievable. We have the strictest rules for dispensation of RU-486, and women are still dying. Why? Because the drugs are being prescribed off-label? No, studies have shown it's safer. Because abortion is bad? No, abortion, even medical abortion, is way safer than childbirth. It's because we don't know how to deal with it. We can't handle abortion, not as a medical procedure. Doctors don't learn about it, and therefore can't treat our women. They shouldn't have to learn to do anything they don't want to do, apparently, even if it's medically necessary. So women will die. And our response is to write some more warnings? How about some better medical training? Some medical recognition that abortion is okay, and that doctors can't drop their patients for having an abortion, and that when a patient has an abortion a D&C isn't the only option for treatment, and painkillers are not a panacea? How about some real steps, instead of this bullshit pandering to those who would like to return to underground, less-safe abortions? How about that?
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