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Texas Bill Would Allow Pharmacists to Refuse Dispensing Abortion Drugs

California Abortion Business Where Woman was Injured Shuts Down

NRLC Blaimed for Killing South Dakota Abortion Ban Bill

UNFPA Still Supporting China’s Coercive Abortion Policies

Parents of Mifeprex (Abortion Drug) Victim Sue Drug Company & Planned Parenthood

TX BILL WOULD ALLOW PHARMACISTS TO REFUSE DISPENSING ABORTION DRUGS — After several cases of pharmacists facing complaints or being fired from jobs for refusing to dispense drugs they believed cause abortions, a Texas state legislator is putting forward legislation that would allow pharmacists to opt out of dispensing some birth control drugs and the morning after pill, which can cause abortions.

Corte said his bill is not intended to deny women legal prescriptions. However, Sarah Wheat of the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League told the Dallas newspaper that her group would oppose the conscience clause. “This bill would cause women to have to roll the dice every time they went to have a prescription filled,” Wheat said. Others back the bill because they say pharmacists should be allowed to opt out of filling prescriptions for drugs that violate their moral beliefs.

Other states have considered or are considering conscience clauses for pharmacists. Gene Rudd, associate director of the Christian Medical Association says 45 states have passed conscience clause laws for physicians, and that protection should be extended to pharmacists — as has been done in IL and SD.[29Nov04, Austin, TX, LifeNews.com; http://www.lifenews.com/state789.html]

 

ABORTION BUSINESS OWNER WHO INJURED WOMAN SHUTS DOWN CALIFORNIA FACILITY – Joseph Durante, the subject of a lawsuit after a woman was injured by a botched abortion, says he has shut down one of his southern CA abortion facilities for lack of business. “It wasn’t feasible,” he said of the Victory Valley abortion business. He would continue to operate his Palm Desert abortion facility.

Durante also told the Dispatch that he believes there will be fewer and fewer abortion facilities in the future because medical professionals are not interested in working at them. “Most doctors don’t want to get involved with that,” he said.

Durante was accused of not providing adequate follow-up care after a botched abortion that perforated the uterus of Ann Marie Santana in 1998 performed at his abortion facility. The abortion also perforated her uterus and bowel and Santana was forced to have emergency surgery as a result. Santana reached a settlement with John Allen, who performed the abortion. 

Durante was once placed on probation by the Medical Board of California. After Santana’s botched abortion, Durante’s license was suspended for 10 days and his probation on another matter was continued. [http://www.lifenews.com/state788.html; 27Nov04, Desert Dispatch,Victorville, CA, LifeNews.com]

 

NRLC KILLED SD ABORTION BILL – National Right to Life & South Dakota Right to Life Inc both opposed the “most restrictive abortion legislation proposed in the USA since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973”. NRLC “kill[ed] House Bill 1191…claiming it is not the ‘right time’…‘It is one thing for National Right to Life to disagree with the timing of a bill banning abortions. It is another thing for them to join forces with pro-abortionisits to kill the ban. It is betrayal of the unborn [child] and Pro-Life Movement’, said Thomas More Law Ctr’s R. Thompson. ‘When is it the wrong time to do what is right?” [The Caleb Report, LDI, Mar/Apr 04]

 

UNFPA — Bush Administration Set to Refuse Funds to Pro-Abortion UNFPA Again: Evidence of China’s on-going coercive abortion policies determine decision — UNFPA will again be denied an allotted $34 million (United Nations Population Fund). Arthur Dewey, the U.S. assistant secretary of State for the bureau of population, refugees, and migration made a presentation to the House International Relations Committee.

Investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of State find that China is still using coercion to enforce its “one-child” per couple policy, said Dewey. The evidence, he told the Committee, “clearly showed us that the large fees and penalties for out-of-plan births assessed in implementing China’s regulations are tantamount to coercion that leads to abortion.”

Dewey reiterated the Bush administration’s stand that “strongly and absolutely” opposes the practice of coercive abortions and sterilizations wherever they occur. “UNFPA support of, and participation in, China’s population-planning activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion, thus triggering the Kemp-Kasten prohibition on support to any organization that supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization,” he said.

The result has been that the United States has not funded UNFPA during the past three years. Since 2002, however, the United States has had continuous discussions with Chinese authorities that have laid out the U.S. stance based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1994 Cairo Declaration on Population and Development that there should be no coercion — in any form — in any nation’s population policies, Dewey said.

While there has been “measurable progress in these negotiations,” China’s policies have not changed sufficiently to permit the Bush administration to resume UNFPA funding, Dewey said. “China’s birth planning law and policies retain harshly coercive elements in law and practice,” he said. “Forced abortion and sterilization are egregious violations of human rights, and should be of concern to the global human rights community, as well as to the Chinese themselves. Unfortunately, we have not seen willingness in other parts of the international community to stand with us on these human rights issues.”

Dewey told the committee that the Bush administration will continue to seek engagement with the Chinese authorities and urge China to move to a human rights-based approach to population issues. Dewey’s remarks: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/dec/041216a.html [WASHINGTON, December 16, 2004 LifeSiteNews.com]

   

 
PARENTS OF ABORTION DRUG VICTIM SUE DRUG COMPANY AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD – The parents of a young woman whose death was linked to the abortion pill Mifeprex have filed suit against the drug’s maker for wrongful death and product liability. Holly Patterson, who died at the age of 18 in Sept 2003, is the third woman since the drug’s 2000 approval to die in connection with taking Mifeprex. 

On Sept. 10, 2003, only a month after turning 18, Patterson took Mifeprex, also called mifepristone and RU-486. Four days later she had her boyfriend take her to the emergency room because of heavy bleeding and cramps. She told her parents the pain was from severe menstrual cramps. She was released by the hospital after being given pain medication.

Three days later on Sept. 17, she returned to the hospital where she experienced intense pain and bleeding and then died. Patterson’s autopsy determined her death was “due to endomyometritis (inflammation)” caused by “therapeutic, drug-induced abortion.”   Officials with the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) believe the potential for Mifeprex to cause significant harm to those who take it to be so serious that on Nov. 15 they strengthened the warning label that comes with the pills.

“The new warnings to health care providers and consumers include changes to the ex
isti
ng black box on the product to add new information on the risk of serious bacterial infections, sepsis, and bleeding and death that may occur following any termination of pregnancy, including use of Mifeprex,” according to an FDA statement.

A New York Times story reported that in addition to the 3 deaths linked to the drug, the F.D.A. has received 676 reports of problems. Among those were 72 cases of blood loss requiring transfusions and 7 cases of serious infections. According to the story the stronger warning label was a step in the right direction for Patterson’s father but more steps should be taken. 

Some leaders in the pro-life community believe that regardless of the final verdict the case could be significant. Information about Mifeprex that becomes public as a result of the pre-trial investigation may prove to be embarrassing to the drug maker.

The lawsuit also names Population Council; Planned Parenthood of Golden Gate, where Patterson received the medicine; the doctor who treated Patterson; and the operators of the hospital where Patterson died. None of the organizations would provide comment. The amount of money sought in the suit was not specified.[Culture of Life Foundation, CULTURE & COSMOS Volume 2, Number 22, 28Dec04]