Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 24, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Buenos Aires College of Pharmacy has denounced a textbook being used in schools that teaches teenagers how to take advantage of the side effects of certain prescription drugs in order to cause an abortion.
The College is demanding that government officials in Buenos Aires address the matter.
In one chapter, the textbook discusses “abortifacient medicines” and mentions methotrexate—often used to treat cancer or arthritis—and oxaprost, which contains the anti-inflammatory misoprostol.
Published by Puerto del Palos, the book explains that these drugs, “produce a decrease in mortality caused by abortions. Due to the scarce and negative information that is circulated about them, they are used improperly, without a prescription, and even more seriously, as a contraceptive, without understanding that in reality they terminate a pregnancy (abortion) and force the embryo to be expelled.”
Nestor Luciani, a spokesman for the Buenos Aires College of Pharmacy, called the textbook “deceitful and incorrect,” since it contains “distorted information.”
Speaking to local reporters, he warned that “the therapeutic action that is attributed to the aforementioned drugs is not that which is specified by the competent healthcare authorities, and their use as an abortifacient drug could have fatal consequences.”