Wis. rumor: Teen girls using cow drugs for abortions

Photo by law keven

We can't say "Only in Wisconsin" on this story because Delaware has this problem too, but it's definitely a Wisconsin story packaged up perfectly for Minnesotans to consume.

Medical professionals are currently looking into stories of teenage girls ingesting cow drugs to end their pregnancies. The girls say they heard it was a cheap and easy way to end their pregnancies without their parents knowing.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is still calling the reports just a rumor as there have been no officially confirmed cases at the state's Department of Health Services. While the drug might cause an abortion, medical professionals warn the drug could also be deadly for the would-be mother. The story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says the teens are using prostaglandins, which is used by cow breeders to regulate an animals' heat cycles. Anna Anderson, the executive director of Care Net Pregnancy Center of Green County in Monroe, told the paper she identified at least 10 teenage girls who admitted to taking the drug in the last year.

More from the Journal-Sentinel:

At the American Veterinary Medical Association, Assistant Director Kimberly May said Friday that her organization first heard the rumor about the teenagers in mid-February from the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association. Since then, the American Animal Hospital Association has also posted an advisory about the issue on its Web site.

May said the AVMA had cautioned its members to be careful about where and how they store and dispense the drug. A small bottle of the substance runs about $16 in a veterinary supply catalog, but the drugs are available only with a vet's prescription, May added.

At Care Net, Anderson said that the girls she talked to drank prostaglandins that they had obtained at their own farms, from peers or hired hands at other farms.

The drug can cause excessive hemorrhaging, infection from the leftover pregnancy tissues, blood clotting, and constricted bronchial tubes. The complications could lead to death.

The American Veterinary Medical Association isn't too happy about this new rumor. They obviously don't want more teens trying it and they don't want the prostaglandin drugs to be a controlled substance.