22-05-2025
West Lothian mum calls for justice on pregnancy drug after its 'impact on daughter'
A West Lothian campaigner is calling for justice over a controversial pregnancy test drug after children have been impacted.
Many women given Primodos blame it and similar drugs for causing abnormalities in babies. They have accused Labour of ignoring families, reports The Daily Record.
In 2023, campaigners lost a High Court battle for compensation – leaving the claimants potentially liable for costs.
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Wilma Ord, 77, from Livingston, took the drug in 1970. Her daughter Kirsteen, 54, is deaf, severely asthmatic and has cerebral palsy.
She said: 'My last MP was SNP Hannah Bardell who went out of her way to listen, to do everything she could but it feels like everything she did has been undone.
'The Labour Government has done nothing for us. They won't look at new evidence, they just won't listen to us.'
Marie Lyon, of the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, took Primodos in the early stages of her pregnancy with daughter Sarah and has been fighting for justice ever since.
She said: 'I share Wilma's frustration at the apparent lack of support from the Labour Government.' Labour MP for Livingston, Gregor Poynton, has met Wilma and has joined the campaign's All-Party Parliamentary Group of MPs.
Primodos was taken off the market in 1978, but 1.5million women had taken it by that point. Manufacturer Schering, now part of Bayer, has denied a link.
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A 2020 independent review found health regulators failed patients and Primodos was responsible for 'avoidable harm'.
Bayer said: 'Bayer maintains that no significant new scientific knowledge has been produced that would call into question the validity of the previous assessment of there being no link between the use of Primodos and the occurrence of such congenital anomalies.'
The Department of Health said: 'The Commission on Human Medicines last year concluded that there was no new evidence to support the claims that the use of hormone tests had adverse outcomes.'
