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# Stop Government Essure Purchases: Congressman
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/stop-government-essure-purchases-congressman/
- Published: 2016-03-24T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T20:51:03.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5135176

> Rep. **Mike Fitzpatrick** (R-PA) is asking members of congressional appropriations subcommittees to exclude the Bayer Essure permanent sterilization device from federal procurement. He says that the government has spent millions of dollars on the device in the past few years. [Letters](http://www.fdaweb.com/download.php?file=Essure%5FApprops%5FLetter.pdf) were sent to the subcommittees on military construction, veterans affairs, and related agencies; defense; and labor, health, and human services, education, and related agencies.  
>  
> The letters say that Essure “has caused irreparable harm to tens of thousands of women and families” since its 2002 FDA approval. Fitzpatrick says that in February, FDA confirmed at least 294 fetal deaths caused by Essure. “Additionally,” he says, “tens of thousands of women have reported other symptoms such as extreme pelvic and abdominal pain, bleeding, migraines, allergic and hypersensitivity reactions to nickel, autoimmune reactions, loss of teeth and hair, the metal coil breaking and migrating throughout the body, and the coil cutting into the uterus and other organs in the abdominal cavity…. Despite these women’s heartbreaking stories and all this data, FDA is allowing this device to stay on the market. That’s why Congress must act in order to ensure that no more women are harmed by this device.”