Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Bob Unruh basically rewrites a Judicial Watch press release in an Aug. 1 article:
At least 22 women have been killed, and hundreds more have ended up with ectopic pregnancies or have required blood transfusions and hospitalization due to an abortion pill fast-tracked by the Bill Clinton administration.
The results of the Clinton administration’s promotion of Mifeprex, also known as RU-486, were uncovered by Washington watchdog Judicial Watch, which had warned of possible negative impacts from the drug.
“Back in 2006 Judicial Watch published a special report based on thousands of pages of FDA and National Archives documents showing the Clinton administration’s aggressive drive to thrust the abortion pill to the market in the United States despite warnings of its hazards,” the organization said this Tuesday.
“Judicial Watch uncovered that the abortion pill was fast-tracked under the ‘Accelerated Approval of New Drugs for Serious or Life-threatening Illnesses,’ a measure that was adopted for use in rare cases to encourage the manufacture and importation of drugs designed to treat life-threatening diseases such as cancer or heart disease.
“Over the years physicians have warned of Mifeprex’s dangers and some have called for banning it. In a piece published by a mainstream newspaper more than a decade ago, an obstetrician warns that Mifeprex is deadly and explains that it obtained government approval because five standard procedural and scientific requirements to prove safety and effectiveness were circumvented to get it onto the market quickly.”
Because Unruh is content to merely rewrite a press release -- and because that's exactly what WND is paying him to do -- he won't bother to do any fact-checking, which would reveal that Judicial Watch's central claim is false.
While the FDA admits that 22 reported deaths have been "associated" with Mifeprex, it doesn't mean that the drug caused those deaths. It further explains that the deaths cannot be directly blamed on Mifeprex because of other confounding factors:
It is not uncommon for the FDA to receive reports of serious adverse events for prescription drugs after they are approved. The FDA has received reports of serious adverse events in women who took Mifeprex. As of December 31, 2017, there were reports of 22 deaths of women associated with Mifeprex since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy resulting in death; and several cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis), including some that were fatal. The adverse events cannot with certainty be causally attributed to mifepristone because of concurrent use of other drugs, other medical or surgical treatments, co-existing medical conditions, and information gaps about patient health status and clinical management of the patient. A summary report of adverse events that reflects data through December 31, 2017 is here. The FDA has reviewed this information and did not identify any new safety signals. The FDA intends to update this summary report on an annual basis or as appropriate.
As with all approved drugs, when the FDA receives new information regarding adverse events, the agency reviews the new information and, as appropriate, takes necessary action, including providing updates to doctors and their patients so that they have information on how to use the drug safely.
In fact, Mifeprex is considered a safe drug -- even safer than Viagra, which we presume Judicial Watch is not interested in investigating or finding out how many deaths it has caused.
In other words, Judicial Watch is either delibertely misleading about Mifeprex or is utterly ignorant about how federal reporting of adverse effects works. And WND is letting it get away with pushing false and misleading information.
