快猫短视频

FAILED attempts to induce abortion using an ulcer drug called misoprostol may
be causing a minor epidemic of birth defects around the world. Misuse of the
drug is increasingly common where abortion is not freely available.

In Colombia, Brazil and the Philippines, the drug is readily available on the
black market. An informal survey by 快猫短视频 has also revealed
that clandestine abortions with the drug are taking place in the Dominican
Republic, Argentina, Spain, Nigeria, South Africa and Indonesia.

In Britain and the US, doctors prescribing the abortion drug RU486 also give
misoprostol to induce contractions, although it鈥檚 not licensed for this purpose
(快猫短视频, 28 October 2000, p 13).
The combination is highly
effective. But in countries where abortion is illegal, women are taking
misoprostol on its own to induce abortions.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really the poor person鈥檚 method,鈥� says Susheela Singh of the Alan
Guttmacher Institute in New York, who has written extensively about clandestine
abortion practices in Latin America. The drug is very cheap鈥攁s little as
35 US cents鈥攁nd is often available over the counter.

But taking misoprostol on its own only induces abortions about 40 per cent of
the time, so many babies are born after failed abortion attempts. Several
studies in Brazil, where up to 75 per cent of clandestine abortions involve
misoprostol, suggest the drug causes birth defects such as fused joints, growth
retardation and a condition known as M枚bius syndrome, which is
characterised by paralysis of the face.

One recent study found that out of 93 children with defects associated with
M枚bius syndrome, 34 per cent of those infants had been exposed to
misoprostol, compared with just 4.3 per cent of the 279 infants in a control
group. Another revealed that 49 per cent of infants born with M枚bius at
seven hospitals in Brazil had been exposed to misoprostol, whereas only 3 per
cent of 96 infants born with neural tube defects had been exposed to the
drug.

While such findings clearly suggest a link between misoprostol and certain
congenital defects, the real risk might never be known because it would be
unethical to do the necessary studies. 鈥淚 think [these results] are real.
Statistically they are highly significant,鈥� says Fernando Vargas of the
University of Rio de Janeiro, who took part in both studies. Because the drug is
used secretly, it is hard to find out how many birth defects might be caused by
it, Vargas adds.

But even critics of the drug鈥檚 clandestine use recognise that, for women,
attempting abortion with misoprostol is less dangerous than other methods, such
as injecting saline. Misoprostol can cause bleeding, but this often allows women
to enter the health system legally. And it doesn鈥檛 result in the kind of
complications caused by other methods.

In the US, misoprostol is controversial not just because of its use in
abortions but because it is widely used to induce labour. The practice has come
under scrutiny recently because several cases of uterine ruptures and deaths of
babies and mothers have prompted lawsuits.