{"id":1711,"date":"2005-07-18T16:20:17","date_gmt":"2005-07-18T23:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/07\/18\/fda-sets-a-deadline-for-plan-b-decision-and-bushs-views-on-contraception\/"},"modified":"2005-07-18T16:20:17","modified_gmt":"2005-07-18T23:20:17","slug":"fda-sets-a-deadline-for-plan-b-decision-and-bushs-views-on-contraception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1711","title":{"rendered":"FDA sets a deadline for Plan B decision and Bush's views on contraception"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two interesting news briefs from ‘Feminist Majority’ that I just couldn’t have been passed up. The FDA has promised to make a decision on Plan B<\/em> by September 1<\/strong><\/a> of this year. Gee, will the FDA continue to play politics with women’s health and reproductive rights, all to appease Bush and the anti-choice\/anti-contraception ideologues? (Probably.)<\/p>\n

Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt has promised that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will make its decision about the over-the-counter status of emergency contraception by September 1, 2005. Leavitt’s announcement comes after a series of delays on Barr Laboratories’ application for the sale of Plan B, a brand of emergency contraception, over-the-counter. At the expense of women’s health, the FDA has continued to put off making a decision despite two expert FDA advisory panels that voted 23 to 4 to recommend its availability in December 2003.<\/p>\n

[…]”After more than two years of waiting, American consumers and American women will finally get an answer,”\u009d said Senators Murray and Clinton in a joint statement. “While we continue to have concerns about the lack of leadership and independent decision-making that Dr. Crawford and the FDA have shown in this case, we have been clear all along that our hold on this nomination is about one thing only: the FDA’s failure to provide an answer on Plan B.”\u009d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s all about keeping us guessing and begging for an answer–begging for women’s reproductive rights and health to be ensured and protected. It’s some sick game to them. Toying with women’s health and reproductive rights, and treating them as “inconveniences” or “unimportant special interest issues,” clearly demonstrates what little regard and esteem our government holds women’s civil rights and liberties–as reproductive rights (*autonomy<\/strong>*) and health are apart of those things. Now, it’s time to ask Dubya Bush about his personal stance on contraception…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nineteen members of Congress have sent a leader to President Bush asking him to clarify his position on contraception. Led by Congresswomen Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), they seek an answer to a question White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan refused to answer on May 26. At the press briefing, when asked about the President’s position on birth control, McClellan replied “… I think the President’s views are very clear when it comes to building a culture of life … and if you want to ask those questions, that’s fine. I’m just not going to dignify them with a response.”\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Has McClellan ever<\/em> dignified a journalist’s question with straight forward answer?<\/p>\n

“The President demonstrates yet again how out of touch he is with mainstream America. Contraception is one of the keys to ensuring that abortion is a choice that is rare. There should be absolutely no ambiguity,” said Wasserman Schultz.[…] “If the President cannot respond to a simple question on whether he is opposed to birth control, then women’s access to birth control is at risk.” In the letter, the members of Congress urge the President to take a clear stand on contraception, saying “responsible men and women need the President to stand up in support of their rights to contraception, not to shy away from the issue.”\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A noble ‘dare<\/em>‘ on the President, however, Bush and his Press Secretary McClellan are notoriously skillful in the art of never directly answering a question. Or giving ambiguous and extremely vague answers that can be interpreted as a simple, “ha-ha, I’m side stepping the question all together and playing word games that you’ll never figure out.”<\/p>\n

[…] “Doctrines of privacy and equality for women are simply not separable: Eroding one imperils the other,”\u009d writes Ellen Chesler in Ms. magazine’s Urgent Report on the Looming Fight Over the Supreme Court. […]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Knowing exactly where Bush stands on the issue of contraception will probably give us more insight as to the fates of Roe<\/em> and Griswold<\/em>, as his judicial nominee will more than likely reflect his own personal views on women’s health and women’s reproductive rights.<\/p>\n

*Update*<\/strong>–thanks to an email I received, here’s some info<\/strong><\/a> on how emergency contraception really works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two interesting news briefs from ‘Feminist Majority’ that I just couldn’t have been passed up. The FDA has promised to make a decision on Plan B by September 1 of this year. Gee, will the FDA continue to play politics … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,102,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-contraceptivesec-zaniness","category-conservative-zaniness-right-wingers-etc","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}