Gardiner Harris reports in the NY Times today that “all four women in this country who died after taking an abortion pill suffered from a rare and highly lethal bacterial infection, a finding that is leading to new scrutiny of the drug’s safety.” The deaths all occured in California, but not, apparently, because of a bad lot of pills. The driving hypothesis at this point is that the pills might somehow make women “vulnerable to an infection with Clostridium sordellii, the lethal bacteria. If so, they will explore how such an infection ‘could be more easily diagnosed and even prevented,’ one official said.”
Gardiner quotes a conservative womens’ group leader:
Wendy Wright, executive vice president of Concerned Women for America … said that the latest news about deaths involving Mifeprex proved that the drug was unsafe. Ms. Wright also speculated that more women were dying after using the drug but that their deaths were going unreported.
“I’m pleased that the F.D.A. is taking a serious look at this,” she said, “and hope that they will no longer allow this drug to be available to cause the deaths of more women.”