WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of 62 U.S. lawmakers have called on the new acting head of the Food and Drug Administration to allow sales of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc’s “morning-after” pill without a prescription, according to a letter made public on Tuesday.
In a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, the members of Congress stopped short of accusing the agency of earlier postponing a ruling because of politics, but chided officials for ignoring evidence.
“We believe this new delay does not truly reflect valid scientific or regulatory concerns,” they wrote in a letter dated Oct. 7.
Barr has pursued over-the-counter sales of its emergency contraceptive drug, called Plan B, for more than two years.
Think about that. Thats 62 members of congress out of 535. I’m seriously underwhelmed.
And they :::cough cough::: “stopped short of accusing the agency of postponing a ruling because of politics”
Afraid to to take a stand? May i ask why? Lets be clear on one thing here. The agency is postponing the ruling because of fundalismo politics.
WHO HERE AT BOOMAN TRIBUNE IS AFRAID TO STAND UP AND SAY THAT THIS IS ABOUT POLITICS?
are you? I’m not. I’m not afraid.
the FDA is restricting access to EC because the fruitcake fundies who pull the strings in Washington these days don’t want women to have the power to make love without a consequence.
Religious conservatives and other opponents argue easier access to emergency contraceptive will result in increased promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases. Supporters, including most doctors and women’s rights groups, say it will prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
And on the seventh day god rested and he said “let there be no morning after”.
Thats the real story. Straight from god who talks to George W Bush, Pat Robertson, Dobson and all the others.
As Marisacat would say, “Laffable, really.”
Two members of The Food and Drug Administration have quit recently due to this illogical repression of emergency contraception for women.
Dr. Frank Davidoff first considered resigning in May 2004, when the FDA declined Plan B’s application, reports the Hartford Courant, but told the Associated Press that the most recent delay, on August 26, “crossed a line for me.” In his letter of resignation, Reuters reports that Davidoff wrote, “I can no longer associate myself with an organization that is capable of making such an important decision so flagrantly on the basis of political influence, rather than the scientific and clinical evidence.”
Susan Wood, PhD, the top woman at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), announced her resignation today because of the continued FDA delay on over-the-counter status for emergency contraception (EC). In a letter announcing her resignation, Wood, who was the Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health and Director of the FDA Office of Women’s Health, wrote, “The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women’s access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women’s health.”
Well I’m pleased to note two of our bureaucrats know how to stand up and be counted. Kudos to them.
I want to share a story with you that was posted last here last week. A story that illustrates how Emergency Contraception is now being (mis)handled where it should matter the most, in crisis care. Please follow the link at the bottom of the blockquote for the remainder of the story.
I live in a Blue northeastern state and was raped at knifepoint by a serial rapist who broke into my house around 3 a.m.
A police lieutenant drove me to an ER that night. I was swabbed, plucked, and turned back to the police to give a statement. At the ER, I was told to see my primary care physician for follow-up care, including tests for sexually transmitted diseases. No mention was made of options existing that would let me avoid conception. I didn’t ask – I was in a daze at that point.
A sexual assault counseling volunteer showed up at the ER and handed me a packet of brochures about services I could get — none included anything about advice on avoiding pregnancy if I wanted to.
You know, my opinion is that such ill-treatment should be grounds for malpractice. In a just country it would be. I wonder why more of our elected representatives can’t speak out on what is essentially basic human rights when a woman who was raped can. I ask you, who has more to lose?
Well maybe thats not the right question. After all, we’re the ones who have more to lose…
This one’s for kate from Our Word. Thank you for speaking out. Your post truly moved all of us.
“Injustice wears ever the same harsh face wherever it shows itself.” – Ralph Ellison
And might I remind everyone that the next target for the religious right’s crusade against women is the very promising cervical cancer vaccine? Studies suggest it is 100% effective against the 2 most common forms of HPV in the United States, yet Family Research Council is afraid it would encourage women to have (horrors!) sex… LINK
an excellent link from from mediagirl dot org on the point that you make
the cancer vaccine is 100% effective. the vaccine PREVENTS CERVICAL CANCER IN ALL INSTANCES.
oh. but we don’t want the young women experiencing sexual pleasure without a price to pay, do we?
oh no.. we can’t have that…
Yep, the fundy asshats will happily watch women die preventable deaths as punishment for having sex. Just like they’ve always relished the deaths of gays from AIDS.
Meanwhile, taking Viagra has practically become a sacrament.
vaccine vs cervical cancer treatment: which offers the best profit potential?
Clearly, the vaccine. It could be used to prevent cervical cancer in nearly ALL women, while estimates from 2004 there will be about 10,520 new cases of invasive cervical cancer in the United States, which will result in about 3,900 deaths. Worldwide, about 500,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. The median age of diagnosis for cervical cancer for all races is 48 years (Kiviat, et al., 1999).
And I’m not so sure I’d bet on big Pharma beating the religious right. It doesn’t look like they’ve been successful in getting Plan B to go over-the-counter.
cervical cancer treatment in that market unit.
The vaccine can be copied, in the Majority World, it will be, and distributed to populations who would not be able to purchase cancer treatment anyway.
But the real loss would be in the lucrative US market, where no matter how much the vaccine is marked up, once it is administered, that’s it.
Cervical cancer is not rare. Every unvaccinated woman represents a potential sale of a much higher ticket product, and because of the life or death nature of the opportunity, people will do absolutely anything to come up with the money. And even after treatment, it may come back. Even if it doesn’t, there are follow up checkups, many more profit opportunities than are possible with a little sting and out the door you go.
You may come back some day to shop with us again for another product, but I have just permanently removed the possiblility that you will ever buy one of our big sellers.
BUt by having the entire female birth cohort as a potential market, I think the potential profits far exceed that of cervical cancer treatment.
There is a reason that pediatric vaccines are aggressively arketed and pushed for making the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations/legal requirement for school entry.
With regard to the cervical cancer, it affects African American and Latina women disproportionately to white women. You can draw your own conclusions about what kind of priority that makes it for the policymakers in this country.
It doesn’t even spread by sneezing.
The reason that vaccines are provided even to poor children is that although there was that time some doctors had to take Pete Wilson aside and explain to him that microorganisms are not always as thorough as he might have hoped when it comes to checking immigration papers, even politicians and their sponsors understand that epidemics of whooping cough and chicken pox, while unarguably have tremendous potential to reduce undesirable populations, have the disadvantage of alarming potential contributors and even more importantly, can necessitate public expenditures that could go to “defense.”
Cervical cancer is more prevalent in the groups of women you mention because health care, including regular screenings for pre-cancer cell changes, are less prevalent. And the cervical cancer, when it develops, is less likely to be treated than in their more affluent sisters. They are not a hot lead for the high ticket item anyway.
Your point about Plan B is well taken. Big pharma makes all kinds of products, some intended for sale to the public, others which are not. Plan B would prevent sales of maternity-related medical and neonatal products, both of which have a much higher product margin than a pill.
Hepatitis B isn’t airborne either, but it’s now a recommended/required vaccine. There’s a lot of money involved in treating chronic liver disease, but still, the vaccine is approved and widely used. And HPV isn’t picky about skin color; it’s so common it’s considered a marker for sexual activity.
You need to remember that health insurers are a big player in the game as well. They would rather pay for the vaccine than have to pay the high costs associated with treatment of cervical cancer, not to mention the various levels of surgical treatment for women with atypical pap smears and HPV who are at greater risk for developing cervical cancer.
My thoughts on Plan B: I’ve noticed that it’s produced/marketed by Barr Laboratories (known for being more of a generic drug manufacturer), rather than one of the BIG players in contraception like Wyeth or OrthoMcNeil. I don’t think they have the same clout as the big boys, and I think that might be contributing to the travesty surrounding its aproval for OTC use.
All is not always sweetness and light between the medical cartel and its parasitic twin.
However, HPV is spread primarily through sexual activity (thus causing that fine beading of sweat and rapid shallow breathing in the fundamentalists), but there have apparently been enough transmissions of hepatitis from saliva that family members of patients are encouraged to avoid drinking from the same glass, etc.
The insurance issue is interesting, though. Poor women are less likely to have it, and women who do have it find they have less and less of it. With employers increasingly unwilling to forgo profits to pay rising rates for insurance for employees, and increasing numbers of employees with insufficient income to purchase insurance.
I have heard arguments that the point of diminishing returns may be near, that some aspects of both medical and insurance cartels may face something of a bloody goose, and be obliged to focus more on the very highest ticket items, the ones that cause families to sell their homes and all their possessions, cash out their 401Ks regardless of penalty and go on TV to beg.
Just for trivia’s sake, Hepatitis A (acute infectious) spreads differently from Hepatitis B and C (blood, sexual contact).
With the insurance thing, I agree that the increasing cost of premiums is sending us hurtling faster towards a disaster that’s been coming for awhile. The most reasonable solution would be for us to move to a nationalized system, allowing smaller businesses to stay afloat; corporations should support this as well. However, the current government would rather spend all our money killing people overseas and giving tax breaks to corporations and rich people, so I’m not holding out much hope for that.
Guess that means the upside is the fools won’t reproduce.
If only that were true. Instead, the bible thumpers breed like rabbits. Human evolution, if it continues at all, has inverted its selection criteria.
What it really means is they want their women to be virgins until marriage so that they can only get HPV from their husbands.
ooops.. i’m going back through the thread one last time and i notice i accidently gave you a 3.
my bad!
I have forgotten which one of our beautiful women here came up with this quote, but it becomes more relevant every day:
Keep your Bible out of my Vagina.
Thank you for keeping us up to date on this cruel and senseless crusade by the idiot right.
yes that’s so true isn’t it? i mean that’s what its all about. bible control. if they really cared about “life” and reducing abortions like they try and sell everyone on, they’d be making EC, and proper sex education, available to every woman in the country who needed it 24/7.
you know. like in europe.
“Injustice wears ever the same harsh face wherever it shows itself.” – Ralph Ellison
this one was for kate
Renee
The most awful part of her story was that she was victimized AGAIN and AGAIN in her efforts to get what should be routine health care.
And most pharmacists are unaware of what’s happening with EC OTC approval and pharmacist refusal, and probably even fewer know what’s going to happen with the cervical cancer vaccine.
Good to know that we are so well represented in congress. NOT.
really i feel so under-represented these days. i suppose the reps are too busy tucking corporate cash into their pockets to notice my needs. it’s all about boodle with them.
cash is what counts.
i should count my blessings like they count their money.
sad to say i only get 12 cents on the dollar, for you and me.
So glad you linked to Kate’s comment. AFAIAC she should testify (and not about Jeesus!) before Congress.
One of the positives that did happen under Clinton (tho now he is in full pro Bush abandonment of women and Hilary and the FDA, Plan B histoire stank to high heaven) was the hearings on Dilation and Extraction (D & X, misnamed PBA).
Small things crushed by the love of shared power. If religion be the vehicle… both parties will cleve to it. And forget women… and everyone else.
And of course pushing “representatives” such as David Ashe, for VA-2 recently (last night) pushed on the “biggest liberal site” (but it is not) and on Majority Report with Seder and Markos. Fighting Dem. Laugh now (or read Roll Call or Elaine Kamarck and Galston) if you ever thought “fighting Dem” was going to mean something real, for the people.
No wonder it is 12% support for women… and as I tell wilfred, gays are at the bottom of the river… still.
Must support the war. So PRO LIFE.
Great post…
i read kate’s comment two days ago and have been chilled by it since. silent and cold. my reaction to it was one word…
damn
there are no words though. these issues of rights are so clear at the personal level, what is right, and then what is wrong and unfair. how can political parties play chess games with women’s lives as if they were pieces on a board? her healthcare wad denied her, for political and religious ends that make no sense.
her experiences will be our norm i’m afraid. her experiences ARE our norms. it should not stand though, what was done to her was wrong.
i have news today of our reproductive rights status from two who are in the thick of the battle for our rights. during the beginning of the pie war (no it is not over) we would say it’s not about the ad…
well… It’s Not Just About Abortion either
and I encourage everyone to click on the linked article for a sobering overview of “where we are right now” on a national scale in regard to reproductive rights.
…there is action that can and should be taken. We SHOULD be able to count on our Representatives and Senators to stand up on this issue, but even some of the good ones need constant nudging.
So, is your Congressperson one of the 62? Then thank her or him. And if s/he’s not on the list, then, obviously, you can ask why and encourage her or him to stand front and center next time. Mine is Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.). He has a 100% positive rating from NARAL and a 93% positive rating from the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Assocation. I have just e-mailed his office to ask why he didn’t sign the letter.
I can’t find the entire list of those who signed the October letter, but below is the list of 54 members who signed a similar letter in January. I would guess that the new list is pretty much the same as the old one, plus 8.
This is the final paragraph of the January 21, 2005, letter:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think there are some fairly strong supporters of reproductive rights in Congress who aren’t on that list. If your Congressperson is such a person and isn’t on the list, it’s worth finding out why not.
But we have to worry about those young girls getting hormones from EC — because, you know, being pregnant isn’t going to have any effect on their bodies.
And we have to worry child rapists getting away with it by forcing girls to take EC — because without an otc morning after pill now, there is no pedophilia.
And besides that it’s really, really haaarrrd to figure out how to control dispensing EC to adults without allowing children to buy them — because we haven’t been doing this with alcohol and cigarettes for years.
BTW, have you read Chris Mooney’s “The Republican War on Science”?
BTW, have you read Chris Mooney’s “The Republican War on Science”?
no but i bet i could lip-sync to it in a karoke bar because it’s already our tune and we already know the words even when though we’re blind drunk…how could we forget them?
its the intelligent design compact disc
but this track isnt about biology or science its about dogma and belief masquerading as healthcare.
scary
I mentioned Mooney’s book because he has tremendous coverage of healthcare issues (in addition to evolution and the environment).
Besides an extensive analysis and history of the FDC and EC, he also details the administrations attempt to claim connections between abortion and breast cancer and between abortion and depression.
the connections you mention between abortion and breast cancer and abortion and depression are also the standard fare served up at the CPCs (Crisis Pregnancy Centers) to young vulnerable women aound the nation. CPCs that are now beginning to be funded by the government, in addition to what’s often their original church funding. i’ve made note of the book, thanks for the heads-up on it.
Carol Everett makes her money as a speaker at antiabortion events–lurid tales of the supposedly “lucrative abortion industry” being her stock in trade–but also heads up a chain of CPCs here in Texas called the Heidi Group. Everett’s Heidi Group is set to receive a hefty share of the $5,000,000 siphoned off from state family planning funds to finance CPCs in Texas this year–a piece of “pro-life” payola that’s already closing Planned Parenthood clinics and depriving poor women of their only access to birth control.
And guess what else Carol does? In her spare time, she’s a member of the official committee that gets to write the TRAP regulations imposed on abortion providers by the state of Texas.
How’s that for some behind-the-scenes political incest? Sweet, huh? This is just one small example of what I mean when I say that it’s going to take a lot more than just preserving Roe to protect women’s rights. And if you don’t know that the same kind of thing is happening with the antis in your own state, it’s only because they like it that way–under the table and under the radar.
with the antis in your own state, it’s only because they like it that way–under the table and under the radar.
Well then, I think we need a ROACH MOTEL.
I was shocked when I learned that every (state?) dollar that goes to PP for women’s healthcare puts an equivalent amount in to the antis funding as well here in PA. So they get money that is specifically earmarked for breast cancer screening for poor women (and they are required to show what the money went for), the CPC folks get money for whatever they choose to spend it on, like ultrasounds and misinformation.
It’s like feeding the enemy with every good thing you try to do for women.
ahhhh, billing opportunity!
some state and federal pork with nothing given in return but bad information.
And we have to worry child rapists getting away with it by forcing girls to take EC — because without an otc morning after pill now, there is no pedophilia.
Could someone please explain to me why we aren’t worried about these child rapists getting Viagra?
Shoot, I forgot to bow down before the greatness of the almighty rod.
Sometimes I wonder how many of our legislators would endorse the 19th Amendment to the Constitution if they had to do it today.
Personally, I would like to make it mandatory that every person running for Congress demonstrate actual contact with reality and some degree of understanding for ordinary people’s suffering, particularly in areas of private stress and distress, e.g. rape, mental health crisis, other medical emergency, being a victim of disasters whether natural or man made – in short, where individuals have to depend on some larger corporate or governmental system to get help. Somehow, reliance on “market forces”, the “ownership society”, “personal savings accounts”, and “private resources” don’t offer much if anything in such circumstances – at least not to ordinary people.
Hmm. Three months working in a rape crisis center. Three months at a battered women’s shelter. Three months work at a food pantry. Three months teaching in an inner city school. All while living in public housing at poverty line wages. Though I’m still not certain that would be ideal, I think it might suffice. Maybe they would even develop a little backbone.
In the 70’s when I was working in a municipal civil rights and community outreach agency, we actually got (by bringing it up at a public meeting) a couple of city council members to live on food stamps for a month. They became our best supporters.
Is how deep but narrow the comment threads are on reproductive rights posts here and dKos — it’s always the same few people. Sometimes a few come in to argue, but most of these supposedly “pro-choice” folks just stay away, and it always comes down to the same few (mostly female) members here, and a proportionally small subset of members at dKos.
Yeah, our “pet cause.”
The small group of 62 lawmakers of both parties is proof:
Sorry if this sounds cynical, but frankly I am disgusted with most of “the left” these days.
At Kos it will undoubtedly disappear but here it gets on the rec list which means that more people will read it and become aware of the issues.
We need more diaries that cover feminist issues and there are enough women here who care to keep getting them on the rec list.
It doesn’t bother me so much whether people comment as long as they read and get informed.
To repeat what I said to you in the ‘why I stay’ diary, we need you to cross-post from mediagirl to BooTrib. Your intelligent and detailed analysis would be a critically important addition to the dialog at BooTrib.
for seconding my (e)motion. Laura is doing some great work, and not enough people are seeing it.
…Daily Kos entirely, I understand, but if not this should be cross-posted there as well. Some reproductive rights Diaries DO make the Recommended list.
I’m not sure, but many “women’s studies” folks were banned …
…banned (although most were reinstated when they asked to be). For the record, I did not participate in any banning and wouldn’t have participated if I had been asked, which I wasn’t.
But there is still an active group of people – me included – who speak out on reproductive rights. Diaries on the subject make it to the Recommended list, and most of the comments are favorable.
Whatever one thinks of Daily Kos, I think we can all agree on one thing, it has a huge audience, much of which is worth reaching. And a cross-post takes 3 minutes at most.
i am unable to crosspost at DK. madman is correct.
well, I still go in there and try, as do some other folks … but the pushback in the threads can be very disheartening. That so many are willing to abandon women for not-even-guaranteed electoral “success” fills me with sadness/anger/disgust.
Because I read every word you said twice, but still don’t see the cynical part.
Nothing but clear-eyed realism, served straight up.
Please don’t give up! I read and forward links to people, and discuss these issues at the local school of pharmacy to make people aware of what is really hapening out there. We need people like you and bayprairie and moiv to keep it up, so we can follow along with you-there are so many things I wouldn’t know as much about if it weren’t for all of your efforts.
I read almost every diary here, but comment on very few, mostly because I don’t have much to add to what the diarist has to say–they’ve said it all for me. I support reproductive rights 100% but not sure what else I have to add to the comment section.
Don’t lose your idealism, the issues that give you passion are shared by many, and we need people like you to keep reminding the ‘powers-that-be’ that they are worth fighting for, not slinking away from.
Hey! Didn’t mean to let you down, media girl.
I support reproductive rights.
I’m disgusted by what’s going on.
When I went to my first Democratic Party primary, I got ‘selected’ to go to the county convention. I was excited. First thing I asked about there was reproductive rights. No one else seemed to care, not even the women. Most figured it was already protected by Roe v Wade, I guess.
I don’t care what flowery language, rationale, reasoning, excuses, or inspiration they use — it always boils down to their agenda trumping a woman’s sovereignty over her own body. The rest is just details.
Now if the Dems wouldn’t seek weaselly compromises for political gain, and just spelled it out like I did, maybe that’d help.
It wouldn’t change the minds of a single jerk. Hell, it’d enrage them. But they’re already a lost cause. But will energize those of us who care. It will wake up those who assume we’ve already won. And it will educate and may convert many who have trusted the govt to do the right thing.
(normally I wouldn’t post because ya’ll said what needed to be said, better than I could. But if it helps, I’ll be sure to spell it out from now on)
and I for one am glad you are Yaright. We all need to express support now and then 🙂
cheers,
spider
just fine.
And they can never hear too many voices.
and as Laura says, probably even less than 12% of “progressive” bloggers seem to give a damn.
It’s time–long past time–for women who care about other women to set the woods on fire. There can no longer be any denying the fact that no one else is going to show either the courage or the inclination to stand up and do it for us.
As always, rights are not granted, but claimed.
..will be the second diary I am working on, as a women who came up in the days when the right wing religous men of god ruled. (It will pick up where the 13 year olds story left off.)
Once again, it is the courage of you younger women that make me wiling to remember and share those bad ol days. If my own experiences reach even one women who needs to hear what could happen again, if they jog even one man into seeing the need to step up strongly to support and defend women’s rights, then it’s worth it.
You were the final trigger for that first difficult diary, and now you’ve gone and done it again, Moiv!
so the younguns keep me going, too. 😉
But tell it, big sister, tell it. We are honored and privileged to be here to hear you.
I can’t wait, scribe!! Your story was one of the very first things I read on BMT, and one of the BIG reasons I stayed here!