Prescription drugs, abortions linked

[The Straight Story]

Prescription drugs, abortions linked
Published: Nov. 20, 2009 at 2:03 AM


MONTREAL, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Half of expectant mothers taking prescription drugs that may harm the fetus terminate their pregnancies, Canadian researchers found.

The researchers examined data from the Quebec Pregnancy Registry on 109,344 women ages15-45 and found 6,871 pregnant women consumed one of 11 prescription drugs known to be harmful to fetuses through the first, second or third trimester.

Of those women, 3,229 had an abortion, 6 percent had a miscarriage and 8.2 percent gave birth to a child with major congenital malformations.

"I never expected such results and I was extremely surprised," study senior author Anick Berard of the University of Montreal said in a statement.

Berard, currently a visiting professor at the Universite Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, said she is concerned there were 11,400 prescriptions for dangerous medicines to treat acne, anxiety and epilepsy that increase the risk of malformations by 30 percent yet are freely available without proper risk management.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/11/20/Prescription-drugs-abortions-linked/UPI-29811258700607/

[TwilightGardener]

1. Wow--serious breakdown of communication between doctors and patients

going on here.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I had an abortion in 1977 because I was taking methotrexate when I became pregnant.

Based on what this drug could do to a fetus, it was the only logical thing to do. That 47% of the women in this study did the same is another reason to keep abortion safe and legal.

[surrealAmerican]

3. I can't figure out why the researchers wouldn't have expected this ...

... to happen. Women who get pregnant, and are informed that the fetus has a good chance of being severely deformed have a good reason to abort. My guess would be that these were all unplanned pregnancies, since nobody would plan a pregnancy while still taking such medications.