Depo-Provera Class Action Lawsuit
Women are suing the maker of Depo-Provera birth control claiming that the birth control drug has caused them severe bone loss leading to osteoporosis. A $700-million class-action lawsuit was been filed against the drug company Pfizer. Pfizer is an international pharmaceutical conglomerate that also markets the drugs Viagra, Zoloft and Celebrex. Pfizer has already been targetted for the alleged serious, and sometimes lethal, side effects stemming from the use of the anti-depressant drug Zoloft and the company currently facing a class action lawsuit in the U.S. over Celebrex, which is alleged to cause heart attacks in users.
Depo-Provera acts as an abortifacient or birth control drug. It is administered through injections four times a year and the artificial hormone prevents a fetus in the earliest stages of development from implanting on the wall of the uterus which leads to its death. The drug is effective in ending pregnancies more than 99% of the time according to Pfizer’s website. Advertisers have hailed the drug as a “hassle and worry free” birth control method, saving women from taking daily pills. However, concerns that the drug may also cause massive and possibly irreversible bone loss in young women have led to three current lawsuits under way in Canada. The drug has also been correlated with increased susceptibility to STD’s in users. In fact the risk
may be up to three times higher than normal according to one study.
Depo-Provera has been at the forefront of foreign-funded birth control programs in the developing world. Between 1994-2000, USAID sent over 40 million units of the drug to these programs with much of it going to Africa. Proponents of the medication have been accused of contributing to the spread of HIV in Africa by weakening women’s immune systems through use of the drug.