American women have been disproportionately injured by dangerous and defective drugs and products, especially those related to reproduction. These legal revisions would make it even harder for women injured by defective drugs and devices to hold wrongdoers accountable.
Statistics reinforce the importance of products liability to women.
Investigations conducted by law professor Michael Rustad of Suffolk University in Boston of punitive damage awards in products liability cases between 1963 and 1993 revealed that nearly 70 percent of all women receiving punitive awards were injured by defective drugs or medical devices. Rustad, who has studied punitive awards, has found that nearly 50 percent of such awards in products liability cases were made to women who had been injured by drugs or medical devices. Punitive damage awards are indispensable to women, whose health concerns have been repeatedly neglected by federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration. Despite decades of overwhelming evidence of the need to regulate silicone gel breast implants, it was not until 1992 that the FDA took action against the commercial distribution of this product. Were it not for the vigilance of injured consumers in uncovering and publicizing the implant's danger, the FDA might never have addressed this health hazard.