■ Pregnant women and their fetuses deserve timely access to safe, effective, evidence-based care. Frequently they do not
get this care because their clinicians do not have pregnancy-specific data about safety, toxicity, dosage, side effects and
contraindications of drugs or vaccines for both pregnant women and their fetuses. Clinicians do not have these data because
of the routine exclusion of pregnant women from drug and vaccine trials.
- Pregnant women should be included in potentially beneficial clinical trials, except when there is a compelling scientific or
ethical reason to exclude them (e.g., the research is irrelevant to pregnant women or the trial involves a known or probable
teratogen).
- Well-designed clinical trials involving pregnant women are key to avoiding the nontreatment, undertreatment or
mistreatment of pregnant women and their fetuses, and promoting fetal safety by reducing the number of pregnant women
treated or vaccinated off-label.