Birth Control Access
The current acting commissioner of the FDA, Lester Crawford, has been blocking women's access to birth control. He blocked an application to make the morning-after birth control pill available without a prescription (aka the Plan B Emergency Contraceptive). This action went against the recommendations of the FDA’s own medical and scientific experts.
Wanna get even? Think it’s time for what went around to start coming around? (rubs hands together)
Now, Bush has nominated Crawford to be the permanent head of the FDA. Think he’s qualified? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Hillary Clinton are holding up Crawford’s nomination until the FDA acts on this application. Approve the Plan B Emergency Contraceptive or Crawford’s toast. Who says the Religious Right is holding all the cards?
Click here to send an e-mail to your senators. Ask them to join Senators Murray and Clinton in holding up Crawford’s nomination.
Out of the tens of thousands of pregnancies resulting each year from rape, nearly 90% of them would be prevented by this emergency contraception. If you think this medical issue should be just that — medical, not religious, not a power grab by the Spanish Inquisition — then please send that e-mail.
If you don’t want the Taliban wing of the Neanderthal party reaching its tentacles into the Food and Drug Administration, please send the e-mail. And forward it to everyone you know.
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:26 AM
21 Comments:
Huzzah!
Great post, and I also encourage everyone to write your congresspeople, no matter how futile (such as in my case, Virginia having been overrun by the taliban), at least get your 2 cents in.
Thanks Tom for the link.. I did send the letters to congresspersons.. and found a few more things that I can take action on there as well.. so many thanks!
:0)
Heya Tom:
Do me a favor kind sir.. well you and all your good readers. View Ancient Eyes and read my latest post. I was BANNED.. my friends from a blog called Political Medium!
My blog will tell you what the situation was.. and you will see what my responses were on my blog.
Anywho.. figured since you have some liberal readers they might get a kick out of reading about it and viewing the political medium blog itself.. it was quite a nutty day!
Aren't they all, Patricia, aren't they all...
Great post, Tom. Rest assured I'm emailing away.
Mr. Rove, on the other hand, merits three phone calls to Washington.
Added in my two cents (or e-mails as it were)
Thanks for the heads up on this.
Bee: Sorry to hear Virginia is Taliban territory (I already knew that though). Beautiful scenery and friendly people; too bad the politicians are so far to the right.
Patricia: Thanks for sending the e-mails. I'll check out Political Medium.
Jet and Ken: Thanks for e-mailing.
Hardigan: I'm glad the AMA sees things logically (they should). I've always thought the same thing about these pharmacists -- if their religious convictions are so important, they should've become ministers.
Argh! Yes, Bush Administration, what a fantastic idea. Place a right-wing ideologue in a position that affects the health of Americans. Let religion dictate which medicines we are legally allowed to use. Jerks.
Hey Bee, this is a little off topic, but I think you should know this. A long time ago, the VA state legislature was going to inact a law that made miscarriages manslaughter 1. If the woman did not report his miscarriage in time to the "proper authorities" (in your case the Taliban) within 48 hours, it would be murder.
I am emailing Rove: Karl.Rove@whitehouse.gov. That pompus ass is going to get a piece of my mind.
Also harding, Walgreens and Wal-Mart refuse to prescribe contraception.
I think that Wal Greens is being compelled to provide birth control. However, Wal-Mart is not. I have an email from a past action alert that states that their employees are not obligated to provide birth control, if it conflicts with the employee's morality.
It is time for these Jesusistanis to go find something else to do-medical school and the Bible are apparently an oil and water mix, and they have chosen their paths. If you can't live up to the oath, get out of the business.
Erinberry: Yup, that seems to be the direction we're headed. Might as well just get rid of all doctors and everyone can go to their minister for medical advice and treatment.
Samantha: I also heard about that proposed law. I assume it didn't get passed, unless they passed it on the same day a celebrity went on trial and all real news got buried on page 41. I also got that same e-mail from Wal-Mart, saying their employees religious whims were more important than filling medical prescriptions.
Jolly Roger: Yeah, I'd say oil and water is a good description for medicine and the Bible. It must be nice to have a job where you can pick and choose what parts of the job you'll do. I sure never had a job like that.
Lou: In 1998 there were approximately 25,000 pregnancies in the U.S. resulting from rape. That's the year quoted in the link; presumably 1998 wasn't too different from other recent years.
This is worse than Wisconsin ordering the University of Wisconsin to stop giving out birth control at all locations, or even discussing it with any students...
I followed the link and sent the e-mail.
to Lou...There's a whole lot more rape than you know about. Sometimes it's date rape or a close family friend that forces himself on a young girl or woman. Yes, some pregnancies are caused by irresponsibility....some guys won't stop long enough to use birth control! And then there are the ones that are caused by ignorance..."you can't get pregnant the first time."
And as far as birth control being accessable in the US, think again, it is becomming less and less accessable every day!
It is obvious that Crawford should not become the head of the FDA - it seems he has an adgenda with his only qualification being that he shares the beliefs of the Christian Right.
We need open and honest sex education in our schools...not the ignorance based abstinence programs taught by members of the clergy. Birth control needs to be readily available for females and males to access and it also has to be AFFORDABLE!
There is a lot more to pregnancy than merely giving birth...that is just the beginning of parenting. If people are not ready to be parents they should be able to enjoy sex responsibly.
Anonymous: Yeah, I heard about that law in Wisconsin. I don't know which is worse; they both suck.
Kitchen Window Woman: Thanks for sending the e-mail. Speaking of ignorance, several years ago a state legislator actually announced during a debate that a woman can't get pregnant unless she had an orgasm during the act. Hmmm, my pappy forgot to tell me something...
These wingnuts are looking for every possible end run around the law and the will of the people when it comes to abortion and birth control. This sudden interest in pharmacists' "moral" convictions is just their latest smokescreen. (And I'm sure it won't be the last.)
OK Democrat: As much as I dislike Bush, I think he's totally having his strings pulled by Big Business and the Religious Right. It really seems like those people think they can make people not have sex. Either that or they just haven't grasped the connection between birth control and abortion: that less access to birth control means more pregnancies and hence more abortions.
I agree, the real sinners here are the Fundies.
Tom, thanks for the info and link! I didn't have to think twice about signing it.
If the phundaMENTAList phramacists don't want to fill certain prescriptions due to religious reasons, then maybe they should quit phramacy and become ministers.
Snave: That's exactly right. When Reagan was governor of California, he said of college demonstrators "if they don't like the rules where they are, they should go somewhere else." (I can't remember the exact quote.)
I suspect the conservatives who cheered Reagan's comment are now cheering those pharmacists who are "bravely" standing up for their beliefs.
Thanks for sending the e-mail.
Liberals finally admitting to political blackmail. Nice!
Keith: Whatever it takes. All is fair under the Bush/Rove administration. Blackmail is such an ugly word; I prefer "bargaining" or "persuasion".
Such a shame they send in the children with their talking points to sully an otherwise good discussion...
OKDemocrat: They will probably try to make pre-marity sex a class 1 felony. Wouldn't surprise me. They like sticking their noses where they don't belong. All of this Christian-based law, rhetoric and influence is going to blow up in their face sometime, and the Republican Party will not recover, and they will probably be wiped out of political history. They will have to change their name and everything.
Anonymous: Yep. It is sad, that in a country as "Free" as America that a woman cannot even gain access to birth control.
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