| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
01 Sep 2005 07:03:30 AM |
| Object: |
Religion, Politics Trump Science again. |
How ironic that the religious right crowd want to restrict access to
something which might actually reduce the number of abortions.
---
FDA Official Quits Over Plan B Pill Delay
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical WriterWed Aug 31, 6:24 PM ET
The highly regarded women's health chief at the Food and Drug
Administration resigned Wednesday in protest of her agency's refusal to
allow over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception.
Assistant Commissioner Susan Wood charged that FDA's leader overruled
his own scientists' determination that the morning-after pill could
safely be sold without a prescription, and stunned his employees last
week by instead postponing indefinitely a decision on whether to let
that happen.
"There's fairly widespread concern about FDA's credibility" among agency
veterans as a result, Wood told The Associated Press hours after
submitting her resignation Wednesday.
"I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs
good health-policy decisions," Wood, director of FDA's Office of Women's
Health, wrote in an e-mail about her departure to agency colleagues. "I
can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence,
fully evaluated and recommended by the professional staff here, has been
overruled."
It was an unprecedented public show of discord for the FDA, and prompted
lawmakers to call for congressional hearings into whether the nation's
leading public health agency allowed politics to trump science in
determining the fate of the morning-after pill called Plan B.
"It is time for the FDA to stop playing games with the health and
well-being of millions of American women," said Sens. Patty Murray,
D-Wash., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. "Day by day, the public's
confidence in the FDA's ability to make decisions based on scientific
evidence of safety and efficacy is eroding."
Sen. Michael Enzi (news, bio, voting record), R-Wyo., who heads a Senate
health committee that oversees FDA, is considering their request for a
hearing, and separately has asked the FDA to explain how and why it
reached Friday's decision, a spokesman said.
Another letter from four House Democrats asks President Bush to issue "a
clear directive" to federal agencies that all health-related decisions
be based on science.
FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford is out of town, but the agency issued a
statement Wednesday saying Wood had helped make "significant strides" in
advancing women's health and that "her decision to leave is unfortunate
as we work toward solving the complex policy and regulatory issues
related to Plan B."
The morning-after pill is a high dose of regular birth control that,
taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can lower the risk of
pregnancy by up to 89 percent.
The sooner it's used, the better it works. But because it can be
difficult for women to get a prescription in time, Plan B's maker has
been trying for two years to begin nonprescription sales and FDA's
latest delay was a surprise: Crawford won Senate confirmation to begin
his job this summer only after promising senators to make a final
decision by Sept. 1.
Instead, Crawford announced Friday that while over-the-counter sales to
women 17 and older would be safe, younger teens would still need a
prescription because of concern about whether they could use the drug
properly and that the agency didn't how know how to enforce an age
limit. So he opened the question to public comment for 60 days, but
wouldn't say how soon after that FDA would rule.
Plan B opponents, who consider the drug tantamount to abortion and have
intensely lobbied the Bush administration to reject over-the-counter
sales, praised Crawford's move, saying easier access to emergency
contraception may encourage teen sex.
But contraception advocates decried it, saying easier access could halve
the nation's 3 million annual unintended pregnancies. FDA scientists
have publicly called the pill safe, used by millions of women with few
side effects, and in December 2003 the agency's scientific advisers
overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for all ages.
When FDA first raised the teen concern last year, maker Barr
Pharmaceuticals proposed the age limit, saying it could be enforced just
like drugstores enforce age limits on cigarette sales.
This time around, Wood said the final decision was made not in FDA's
usual manner but "at the commissioner level ... where most if not all of
the professional staff were excluded." Nor has FDA ever raised questions
about teen use of other drugs, she said.
Wood, a biologist, joined FDA's women's health office in 2000, after
directing women's health programs at its parent agency, the Department
of Health and Human Services. She has worked as a research scientist and
a prominent congressional adviser.
---
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050831/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/morning_after_pill;
_ylt=AhzlYCB_ZSZHMxV_aItVsWh34T0D;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
.
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| User: "J Forbes" |
|
| Title: Re: Religion, Politics Trump Science again. |
01 Sep 2005 04:29:38 PM |
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johac wrote:
How ironic that the religious right crowd want to restrict access to
something which might actually reduce the number of abortions.
---
FDA Official Quits Over Plan B Pill Delay
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical WriterWed Aug 31, 6:24 PM ET
-snip-
Another letter from four House Democrats asks President Bush to issue "a
clear directive" to federal agencies that all health-related decisions
be based on science.
yeah....right.....Bush is gonna support the concept of basing decisions
on science......heh!
Jim
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Religion, Politics Trump Science again. |
02 Sep 2005 04:51:39 AM |
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In article <1125592178.918533.167980@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
"J Forbes" <jforbspam@fastmail.fm> wrote:
johac wrote:
How ironic that the religious right crowd want to restrict access to
something which might actually reduce the number of abortions.
---
FDA Official Quits Over Plan B Pill Delay
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical WriterWed Aug 31, 6:24 PM ET
-snip-
Another letter from four House Democrats asks President Bush to issue "a
clear directive" to federal agencies that all health-related decisions
be based on science.
yeah....right.....Bush is gonna support the concept of basing decisions
on science......heh!
Jim
Yeah. Bush's science advisers are easy to pick out. There the ones with
the tall pointy hats, the crystal balls, and the magic wands.
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
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