Fact check

CHEERS TO InterAksyon.com for a report on the effects of the “pill” after the claims of Sen. Tito Sotto III in his speech in the Senate of its supposedly ill effects.

Sotto, during a Senate session on the proposed Reproductive Health measure, said the pill his wife was taking took its toll on his first born son who died of a weak heart. InterAksyon interviewed several medical experts on the possible effects and the conditions of women taking pills and its relation to pregnancy. (“Fact Check: Was Sen. Sotto correct in blaming pills for his infant’s death?”, Aug. 15)

The experts interviewed said that there are many factors to consider before one can claim that pregnancy defects are caused by contraceptive pills, among them the patient’s medical history. Studies show that the pill has side effects and these are contained as warnings, but there has been no study directly pointing to contraceptives as the main cause for birth defects or pregnancy deaths.