Congressman calls for bipartisan support in banning Essure sterilization product

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) has announced he intends to introduce a bill to ban the Essure sterilization device, and expects the move to attract Democrats in addition to pro-life Republicans.

The “E-Free Act will order the Food and Drug Administration to remove the premarket approval for the Essure system medical device – a permanent sterilization device for women,” Fitzpatrick writes in a letter to his colleagues.

“The FDA has received over 5,000 formal complaints related to the device and over 22,000 women have joined together on Facebook to share their stories of how the Essure device ruined their lives,” including at least four deaths of women taking Essure and four deaths of preborn babies who were conceived after their mothers used Essure.

As Live Action News has previously covered, objections to Essure on safety grounds have come from both the pro-life and pro-choice camps. The federal Food and Drug Administration, which approved the product in 2002, has updated its list of recognized health risks associated with Essure.

The “Essure Problems” group, which opposes the device and documents women’s experiences with it, called the FDA’s move a step in the right direction, but maintained more needs to be done.

“Whatever they’ve put on the label, multiply it by 200,” Essure Problems administrator Angela Desa-Lynch said in February.