WOMEN's REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The Dangers of RU 486: A Warning from 25 Years Ago

By Helen Borel, R.N.,Ph.D.

[This article was originally published in the Fall 1992 issue of
REVOLUTON: The Journal of Nurse Empowerment.  I wrote
this impassioned treatise after I read this major book on the so-
called “morning-after pill” –  RU 486: Misconceptions, Myths 
and Morals by Janice G. Raymond, Renate Klein and Lynette J.
Dumble; Institute on Women and Technology, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1991, 152 pp.]

Reading RU 486: Misconceptions, Myths and Morals by
medical ethics professor Janice G. Raymond, biologist Renate
Klein and surgeon and immunosuppression expert Lynette J.
Dumble will lead nurses to only one conclusion. That is that
the media blitzkrieg promoting RU 486 as an abortifacient is
a commercial conspiracy to reinflict on females the pain and
mortal dangers of fertility control we thought 20th century
woman had finally escaped

At the outset, let me emphasize that this expose’ of the perils,
pain and prolonged suffering patients are subjected to on
RU 486 – the supposed miracle “antigestational” pill – in no
way impugns the potential benefit of such antiprogesterones
for other conditions or for important research into potential
treatments for ovarian and breast cancers.  That said, to
reveal a quantum of truth-challenging manufacturer Roussel
Uclaf’s devious claims of safety, simplicity and painless
“morning-after” dosage, this critique intentionally publicizes
the terrible side effects and long hours, days, even weeks of
agony and risks RU 486 patients endure.

Nightmare in Womb Care
Making RU 486 even more terrifying, it is now given in
tandem with prostaglandins (Pgs).  This is because adding
a PG a few days after RU 486 is taken “...reduces abortion
failure from 40% to the current failure rate of 5%. While
PGs partly salvage the reputation of RU 486, they subtract
from any claim it is safe,” assert the authors, in whose
152-page report you’ll find the nursing and medical truths
about the RU 486/PG protocol that has been buried in the
euphoric frenzy whipped up in the media by Roussel’s
deceit.  This books should be read by every woman of
childbearing age, as well as by her sons and lovers.  Of
course, it is required reading for all RNs.

The Pharmacologic Rape of Pregnant Women
The authors report, contrary to popular myth, that the
RU 486/PG protocol is “a highly medicalized, multi-step
procedure which, for many women, involves continuous
suffering and pain.”  A patient approaching the medical
system for simple pregnancy termination is in for a rude
(sic) awakening.  Her first visit to a clinic, a physician,
or a hospital oriented to “chemical abortion” subjects her
to a complete physical and pregnancy test, plus a vaginal
ultrasonography and/or a chorionic gonadotropin test. But
what she came for is withheld.  Instead, because of legal
constraints, she is forced to wait 24 hours or more before
initiation of the protocol, further disrupting her life with
expensive, intrusive visits, emotional duress and the
added burden of hidden, simmering anger at these medi-
cal abuses of her personal rights.

At the second visit, she takes three RU 486 tablets in the
presence of a nurse.  Never is the drug taken without a
prescription, nor alone at home! She returns to receive
parenteral, oral or vaginal PG about 36 to 48 hours later.
Thus far, although she has made three medical visits, her
pregnancy remains intact.  Compare this cruel process
with a swift D&C (dilatation and curretage, a minutes-
long surgery emptying the uterine contents) which would
have been long over by now – the patient well on her
way to physical and emotional recovery.

Again, there is a pelvic exam.  And, since the occurrence
of two PG-induced   “cardiovascular accidents” [?heart
attacks?] in France, RU 486/PG patients, like our heroine,
must remain reclining, having her blood pressure taken
both during PG administration and every half-hour
thereafter, with emergency equipment and drugs immedi-
ately at hand.

The Long Painful Wait
The patient usually stays like this for three to four hours
awaiting medically supervised embryonic expulsion.
Unfortunately, too many RU 486/PG patients, like
her, undergo and unconscionably prolonged wait at
home – for many more hours, days, or weeks –
where expulsion occurs unattended, where her
usually severe symptoms will be endured alone
without essential nursing care.

Alone, she will suffer long, drawn out nausea,
vomiting, bleeding and labor-like pain, all the time
risking even worse complications.  Paradoxically,
having done without crucial nursing care throughout
the actual abortion process, she now must return to
the doctor to be sure it’s complete.  This subjects her
to yet another pelvic examination, another vaginal
sonography and/or another chorionic gonadotropin
test.  The hard stuff she does alone.  The easy stuff
the doctor does.

The ultimate coup de grace is delivered  if she turns 
out to be one of the two-to-13.4% of RU 486/PG in
whom the drugs do not work, except for creating
suffering and danger.  She then must submit to still
another ironic intrusion – a surgical abortion (D&C)
after all.Such is the much-lauded, private, so-called
risk-free, comfortable, antigestational drug – the
one-dose women’s liberator pill!  And thus, Roussel
has the last cynical laugh on those feminists
uncritically supporting this pharmaceutical menace.

The Feminist Mistake: Sleeping with the Enemy
Some feminists have made a terrible mistake.  Ditto we
feminist nurses.  In our rush to protect our reproductive
freedoms, we are on the brink of forfeiting our pelvic
health, our future fertility, our very lives.  The Feminist
Majority, for example, ignorantly disseminates a packet
of medical articles on RU 486/PG, each co-authored by
at least one Roussel researcher, that includes no dissent-
ing medical or nursing voices challenging Roussel’s
false claims of safety and simplicity.  The world’s
women are not only being victimized by the lemming-
like media, but by some women who have failed to
interrogate, with rigor, the manufacturer.  With an ally
like Roussel, feminists are in bed with their own worst
enemy.

Raymond, Klein and Dumble’s book challenges such
“uncritical promotion of RU 486/PG by women’s
rights groups.”  And I challenge women’s groups to
first consult Registered Nurses for clinical facts on all
healthcare issues to prevent malignant deceptions like
this one from spreading and harming the public.  The
Feminist Majority, lacking rudimentary knowledge of
the kinds of severe suffering and clinical tragedies
associated with RU 486/PG, totally avoidable with
curettage (D&C), are igniting heavy consumer demand
for a regimen of misery.  And so, American feminists
have succumbed to the Roussel Uclaf lie.

Thus, having craftily egged (no pun intended) women
on to clamor for RU 486/PG, Roussel marketing execu-
tives have turned the tables, becoming the ultimate
beneficiaries. They have convinced feminists to support
the launching of RU 486/PG in the most lucrative drug
market in the world – the United States.  Bravo to the
success of Roussel’s world media engineering and to its
clever manipulations of women’s groups. Demerits,
however, to those women and journalists who parrot
Roussel’s claims without thoroughly seeking out all the
facts, without concerned attention to the suffering and
death this quack-door drug butchery brings in its wake.

What is RU 486 and How Dangerous is It?
Roussel’s Mifegyne, generically mifepristone, is the
brand name of RU 486.  Mifepristone, a 3-beta-hy-
droxysteroid dehydrogenase inhibitor, is an antigluco-
corticoid (works against cortisone-like substances)
which affects the pituitary-adrenal axis (that axis
involves the main brain gland and the adrenal glands).
It is also a progestin antagonist which blocks proges-
terone activity at specific receptor sites (remember,
progestins/progesterone support preganancy).
However, this in no way justifies calling it a
“morning-after” pill.Even though it is being touted as
a “contragestive” and is being pushed as “a new
approach to postovulatory fertility control,” its
pharmaceutical and clinical effects leave much to be
desired.  Cloaking it in a mysterious-sounding code
name, instead of calling it what it really is, generically
and chemically, has lent it a legitimacy and scientific
aura totally unwarranted by the facts.

Mifepristone, no marvel, instead is fraught with
considerable dangers which are heightened by its
adjunctive use with prostaglandins. Not only does
the RU 486/PG regimen require several medical
visits plus endurance of unacceptable levels of
distressing symptoms without nursing or medical
care, but hemorrhage also frequently occurs, too
often requiring transfusion – especially ominous
in this era of AIDS. Moreover, there are clear risks
of anaphylaxis (allergic airway obstruction) and
death.

What are Prostaglandins? 
Why are They Dangerous?
Endogenous (physiologic, in your body) PGs are
synthesized by the body as needed. They signifi-
cantly affect smooth muscle, platelets, the
endocrine system, adipose tissue, lymphocytes,
nerve endings and the central nervous system
(multiple physiologic tissues and functions
crucial to healthy existence).These short-acting
endogenous PGs, with their half-life lasting “a mere
fraction of a second,” respond to intricate micro-
physiologic regulation of their effects on these
target cells and tissues.

Not so with exogenous (external, synthetic)
PG analogs whose half-life lasts 18 to 24 hours.
“It is this extended half-life of synthetic PGs
which calls into question the ethics of PG-induced
pregnancy termination,” the authors caution.  The
biological threat of exogenous, stable PGs is magni-
fied by the likelihood that a woman’s physiology
may be incapable of reversing prolonged systemic
exposure to what would normally be only brief
encounters with PGs.  Systemic levels far exceeding
these fleeting amounts dangerously impact immune
function.  Furthermore, say the authors, “There
simply would not be any PG requirement were
RU 486 the miracle pill its supporters proclaim.”

Rapid Collapse, Coma and Death from PGs
PG analogs (prostaglandin-similars) have been used
as immunosuppressants (dampers-down of the immune
system so immune function won’t overreact and cause
rejection) in kidney transplant patients; however,
Raymond and co-writers report, “In transplant patients
much smaller PG doses than those given with RU 486
inhibit immune response.  Furthermore, PGs have been
used widely for years as abortifacients with painful and
tragic consequences. The reluctance of the medical pro-
fession to publish these results has created an unaware-
ness of just how dangerous PGs are for women.”

One French woman, “aged 26 years, collapsed three
minutes after an intraamniotic (within the sac holding
the embryo) PG-induced abortion at a university
hospital.”  Despite immediate heroic measures, she paid
with her life. Her embryo was expelled six days post-PG
instillation, but she remained comatose until her death
approximately 4 weeks later.

Anaphylaxis with PG Use [anaphylaxis, usually an
allergic response, shuts down the respiratory system
preventing oxygen aeration, causing death]

Another woman went into anaphylactic shock 10 seconds
after PG instillation, suffering dyspnea (breathing difficulty),
violent nausea, stomach pain, bradycardia (slowed heartbeat)
and bodywide erythema (reddening of the skin).  Two other
women experienced anaphylaxis, one immediately upon
PG administration, the other 30 minutes thereafter.  A fourth
woman suffered nausea and vomiting immediately upon
PG administration, followed by bradycardia, severe
bronchospasm (like asthma, closing up of the bronchi,
the breathing tubes to the lungs) and cardiorespiratory
arrest (essentially, death).  It took 30 minutes (with only
8 minutes before anoxia [oxygen lack] produces
permanent brain injury) to restore her cardiopulmonary
(heart-lung) function, crippling her with lifelong dementia
directly attributable to PG-induced anaphylactic anoxia.

Medical Marketing Madness
Because of their dangers, mifepristone (RU 486) analogs,
such as epostane, are contraindicated as abortifacients.
Although there are no indications mifepristone is any
safer, “RU 486 has survived and continues to be promoted
due to the extraordinary efforts of Roussel’s researcher
Etienne Baulieu, rather than on its scientific merit.  In fact,
new RU 486 “cocktails” continue to emerge, one perfectly
timed to counter the announcement, in April 1991, of
that young French woman’s death due to RU 486 plus
“a small dose of sulprostone.” (sulprostone is a PG)

In a sinister speech, calculated to whitewash RU 486,
“Baulieu informed the French Academy of Sciences he
had devised a simpler way to use RU 486 and had
already confirmed, in 100 women, the safety of RU 486
plus a small dose of misoprostol.  ”This despite manu-
facturer G.D. Searle’s clear warning that misoprostol,
an oral PG, is contraindicated in pregnancy, that it
causes incomplete abortion and hemorrhage! Deriding
Baulieu’s grandiose claims for RU 486/PG concoctions
comprising still other PG analogs, the authors worry:
“How many more health hazards will be contrived
before RU 486/PG-based abortion is finally abandoned?”

Roussel’s Thesaurus: Euphemisms for Pain and Peril
Considering Roussel’s global ambitions for this dangerous
protocol, never has caveat emptor held such urgency.
Rationalized by Roussel “scientists” as a benign technology
to circumvent legislated obstacles to safe, swift curettage,
this Draconian punishment, visited upon women worldwide
– if we let it – only adds injury to insult for half the world’s
population. For, despite Roussel’s euphemistic veilings of
the bloody truth, RU 486/PG is not a safe alternative to D&C.

Money-driven pharmaceutical moguls have a vested interest
in promoting toxic drugs to women – despite their dangers.
Since when, anyway, has the male commercial animal or the
male medical tycoon shown true concern for women’s
health? We have only to look at carcinogenic DES, teratogen-
ic thalidomide and immune-compromising silicone breast
implants to grasp the mindset of Drug Man, Government Man
and Medical Man.  Only after irremediable damage becomes
widespread do these characters alter their identities and come
riding in like the cavalry, wearing the mantle of rescuer.
They all must have been out to lunch during the pre-marketing
trials of these dangerous products.

I refer here largely to physicians, who are supposed to protect
us, who work for the FDA or who do research and clinical
trials for drug and medical device manufacturers.  And these
hypocrites ask us to trust them! Still, in the case of RU 486/PG,
kudos are in order for the Food and Drug Administration.
Because, so far, the FDA has kept Roussel’s gynecocide off
the American market.

Nurses Must Lead a Public Outcry against RU 486/PG
Nurses must speak out about this menace.  By virtue of our
education, knowledge and clinical experience, we have the
authority to do so. We are the experts in patient care. We are
the experts who attend a patient’s suffering and death. We are
the caring professionals left to relive the nightmares of
botched chemical abortions, of horribly rapid uterine
hemorrhage (exsanguination, “bleeding out”), of the death of
a young girl or a woman who leaves motherless children
behind. We are the ones who really know. We must not
remain silent.

Because Roussel’s misleading claims conflict with the truth,
we must counsel patients, family and friends against falling
prey to irrational popular demands for this dangerous combi-
nation of drugs.  The facts, laid bare in this important book,
provide a powerful context from which to challenge the moti-
vations of the World Health Organization, population
councils, drug corporations, and government health ministries
of all nations who approve this kind of drug warfare against
the world’s women.

In calling for an immediate worldwide ban on RU 486/PG –
Roussel’s Roulette – we will affirm for females everywhere
that women patients are unwilling to pay the price for corpor-
ate profiteering and medical greed. We, the nurses of America,
must tell the purveyors of this drug that we are unwilling to
be martyred by a pharmaceutical wire hanger!

(C) Copyright 1992-2015  Dr. Helen Borel. All rights reserved.

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