Ru 486 Misconceptions Myths and Morals - ressourcesfeministes

The History of RU 486pharmacovigilance network alerted the Ministry of Healthto the death of a woman from chemical abortion. On 8 April1991, the Ministry of Health issued a Communiqué stating thata 31-year-old woman had died from cardiovascular shock(heart failure) shortly after an injection of the prostaglandinNalador (sulprostone) in conjunction with Myfégyne (RU486). The first of ‘a few catastrophes’ had taken place, not inthe third world but in high-tech France, where the safetyrequirements in case of emergency (e.g. equipment,medications) should have been met. Few details werereleased, but the Communiqué did point out that the youngwoman was a heavy smoker and in her 13th pregnancy (othersources mentioned that she was the mother of 11 children),and that in 1990, the Ministry of Health had warned againstthe use of RU 486/PG by smokers. Roussel Uclaf alsorevealed that the prostaglandin Nalador used independentof RU 486 was implicated in the deaths of three other womenand four additional women who had suffered non-fatal heartattacks (quoted in Riding, 1991).The company’s response to the RU 486/Nalador deathwas simple: switch to another prostaglandin—gemeprost—which, although administered as a vaginal suppositoryrequires increasing the dosage significantly from 0.25 mg to1 mg (idem., see also Chapter Four). On 19 April, the HealthMinistry ruled that RU 486/PG was not to be administeredto women who have smoked for more than two years or areolder than 35. Further, it had decided to reduce the dosageof Nalador to 0.125 mg or alternatively to use 1 mg ofCervagem (gemeprost), and also mentioned that oralprostaglandin administration was under investigation.Rather than expressing distress and bewilderment overthe woman’s death, Baulieu on the same day announced hislatest experiments with women using an oral prostaglandin.As he put it, the oral prostaglandin was ‘simpler,…lesspainful and possibly safer’ than his previous promise forsafe and effective abortion (Altman, 1991: C3; but see also23