Back in 2011, Qualitest Pharmaceuticals released a small batch of birth control pills that contained one critical error:
The pills were mixed up.
And now the women who took the wrong week of birth control pills are suing the company for the resulting unplanned pregnancies.
The packaging, according to a lawsuit filed this week, was rotated 180 degrees, causing some of the women to mistake a full week of real pills for the placebo week of pills. The women are asking the company to cover the costs of raising a child, including college education, a number well into the millions.
According to Philly.com, 113 women who carried their babies to term are part of a lawsuit against the company, claiming they became pregnant because of the critical birth control packaging error.
The official lawsuitfiled against Qualitest lists that the plaintiff is suing to “recover damages for the unwanted pregnancy and serious and permanent injuries sustained by her and her child.” Thanks to the birth control manufacturer’s negligence, the lawsuit states that the plaintiffs are pregnant and “may suffer bodily injury resulting in pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, expensive health care and treatment, loss of earnings, and a loss of ability to earn money.”
The birth control named in the suit was officially recalled by the FDA in 2011and included the brands Cyclafem 7/7/7, Cyclafem 1/35, Emoquette, Gildess FE 1.5/30, Gildess FE 1/20, Orsythia, Previfem, and Tri-Previfem. “A packaging error may result in the daily regimen for these products being incorrect and could leave women without adequate contraception, and at risk for unintended pregnancy,” the FDA explained.
“Select blisters were rotated 180 degrees within the card, reversing the weekly tablet orientation and making the lot number and expiry date no longer visible.”
But no worries, the FDA said. “These packaging defects do not pose any immediate health risks.”
Because a pregnancy is not a health risk. Haha, good one, FDA.
Confession: I laughed a little when I first saw the headlines about this story, wondering what can of worms could be opened if we could all sue for unintended pregnancies.
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But then I read some of the stories of the womenwho became unexpectedly pregnant, and I was immediately sobered up. One woman had to place her child up for adoption because she was getting deployed. Others had to drop out of law and nursing school. Two teens became pregnant and another had complications due to a twin pregnancy.
These are not little things. Those repercussions are a big deal, and maybe this lawsuit is a step in the right direction to make birth control companies more accountable and to shed light on the seriousness of pregnancy, instead of always showing it as a glowing, picture-perfect, nine-month journey.
I really don’t know how I feel about this story, because no birth control is 100 percent effective. I once saw a couple come into the birth center where I worked as a nurse, who were pregnant with a completely unexpected baby, both of them having been sterilized. They were both accusing the other of cheating, and it was awkward for all parties involved, but thankfully, the baby was fine.
My point is, can you really blame a birth control manufacturer for getting pregnant? On one hand, they really did mess up something pretty crucial, but on the other, birth control isn’t fail-proof. Even getting your tubes tied has a 0.5% failure rate.
But in this case, the women have precedence on their side due to a case against the pharmaceutical corporation, Pfizer in 2012. Pfizer was ordered to pay damages for women who became pregnant as a result of a similar packaging error. The Pfizer case was initially dismissed by a judge who ruled that the “benefits” of parenthood far outweighed the “negatives” of actually paying for parenthood, but the plaintiffs appealed and “were awarded damages that included the cost of rearing the child, but which were offset by the benefits of parenthood,” The Atlantic reported.
However, in this case, Qualitest has only been able to confirmthat one defective package of birth control pills was actually sold, and that the plaintiffs cannot “establish” that they actually had one of the defective packages.
It’s an interesting case either way, and it leaves me with one important question: Do you think I could get some help for a future college education fund from a certain champagne company?
