RU 486?

Rebecca Frech and her husband were expecting their fifth child in the summer of 2006 when Rebecca experienced some complications. Their child had died in utero. Immediate action needed to be taken to ensure no infection would ensue. Rebecca was given the choice of using RU 486 to induce labor. Considering this seemed like the safest option, she decided to move forward.

Being the natural birth mother of four children she thought she knew what to expect. After taking the first half of RU 486, Mifeprex, Rebecca was told it’d be about 24 hours before she began to go into labor. She asked if she could leave the hospital and come back when the contractions began. The attending physician said no because there was a chance she could bleed to death. After taking Cytotec –a drug used in the treatment of stomach ulcers and not approved by the FDA to be used on pregnant women, and is also the second part of the RU 486 drug series Rebecca began to experience intense side effects.

Over the next seven hours Rebecca passed blood clots that ranged from the size of a chicken egg to the size of her fist. She experience a severe migraine and contractions that radiated throughout her body. At one point Rebecca remembers sharing her fear with her husband that she would not be walking out of the hospital – she feared this was the end. Eventually she delivered their stillborn child. It was not until after the process was over that Rebecca was told they had blood on stand-by for her in the event she needed a transfusion.

In 1996 the FDA tentatively approved the use of RU 486. Danco Laboratories, the company responsible for distributing the drug in the U.S., reports that within a five year period over 460 thousand women have used this drug to end their pregnancies. What is not widely reported is that twelve deaths have been linked to the use of RU 486.

Dr. Donna Harrison has conducted extensive reviews on RU 486 and has noted that the drug weakens the immune system, opening the door for a bacterial infection. Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America says the FDA and the Center for Disease Control are investigating and researching this impact on the immune system, but women are still not being made aware of the potentially deadly side effects.

Rebecca is sharing her story with the intention to educate other women about her experience – helping them to make an informed decision.

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