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Latin American Women
Turn to Cheap Ulcer Drug to End Pregnancies
March 19, 2003 -
Frustrated by governments that outlaw abortion, Latin American women
are turning to a cheap ulcer medication to end unwanted pregnancies,
according to a March 19, 2003 story by Associated Press writer Andres
Cala.
She wrote that some
pharmacies in the Dominican Republic sell as much Cytotec as aspirin
or cold remedies, according to the Dominican Pharmacy Owners'
Association.
"No one yet knows the
best ways to use it but ... where abortion is illegal and unsafe, it
might be the single safest method," said Dr. Beverly Winikoff,
director of reproductive health for the New York-based Population
Council.
Cytotec came onto the
market in the late 1980s as an anti-ulcer drug but its unapproved use
as an abortive aid has grown, particularly in countries where
abortions carry prison terms of up to 20 years.
Anti-abortion groups are
fighting to get the drug off the market, saying it amounts to
legalized abortion, according to the AP report.
"The Catholic Church
radically condemns any sort of abortion," said the Rev. Nelson Acebedo,
secretary of the archdiocese of Santo Domingo. "It doesn't matter if
the abortion is done by taking some medicine, we equally condemn it."
But for some women,
Cytotec provides a choice, stated Cala..
"This country made me
feel that what I was (considering) was evil," said 34-year-old Digna,
who did not want her last name published.
A mother of two, she
turned to Cytotec five years ago when she became pregnant. Strapped
for cash and in a bad relationship, a friend bought the tiny pills at
a pharmacy for $1 each and, in three days, Digna miscarried in her
mother's bathroom with no complications. Women take from eight to 16
pills. Illegal surgical abortions here can cost from $400 to $1,000.
Cytotec, known
generically as misoprostol, is often taken in conjunction with
mifepristone, also known as RU-486, which blocks a hormone vital for
embryo development. But mifepristone is banned in countries where
abortion is illegal, and Cytotec is taken alone.
The ulcer drug is
"pretty safe and effective" and causes contractions resulting in the
expulsion of an embryo 80 to 95 percent of the time, said Dr. Philip
D. Darney, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of
California, San Francisco.
He is co-author of an
article in the New England Journal of Medicine that cites risks as
hemorrhaging and infection, and the most common side effects as
nausea, abdominal pain, chills and fever.
Women who have had
Caesarean sections also risk rupturing scar tissue and their uterus,
said Dr. Charles Lockwood, chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology
department of Yale University School of Medicine.
But "it is still far
safer than illegal or unskilled surgical abortions," said Dr. Laura
MacIsaac, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and
director of family planning at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in
New York City.
Cytotec's maker, New
Jersey-based Pharmacia Inc., defends its product for its labeled use
as a gastric drug and points to a warning cautioning pregnant women of
its side-effects.
But lax legislation,
lack of control, and the drug's popularity in Latin America make it
easy to get without a prescription.
With the exception of
Cuba and the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico, abortion is
illegal in Latin America. About 4 million illegal surgical abortions
are performed every year — 6,000 of which result in women's deaths,
according to the World Health Organization (news
-
web sites).
Contraceptives are
widely available but most women don't use them because they don't have
the money or because it's unacceptable in their culture or religion.
And men are reluctant to use condoms.
In Peru, one in three
pregnancies is terminated, according to the Flora Tristan women's
rights group, and Cytotec has helped reduce hospitalizations linked to
unsafe surgical abortions.
The group conducted a
study last year that indicated one in seven illegal abortions in Peru
led to hospitalization.
Cytotec is widely
available, and Colombia and Brazil are making a generic version —
labeled only as an ulcer drug.
"It is simply
irresponsible that the government prohibits abortion without giving
out information," Digna said. "They know it happens daily, so they'd
better just deal with it and inform women." |
