Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
In his decision to refuse over the counter sales of Plan B
emergency contraception, the Bush appointed FDA commissioner ignored not only
scientific fact but the opinions of FDA top officials.
Dr. Steven Galson and Dr. Janet Woodcock, both career
scientists and top FDA officials, were completely excluded from the
decision-making process. Both had
recommended, based on the actual scientific evidence, that Plan B was perfectly
safe to sell without a prescription. In
a completely unprecedented move, the decision was made by then FDA commissioner
Lester Crawford without listening to or consulting other FDA officials.
In her book How The
Pro-Choice Movement Saved America, Cristina Page documents how ‘there is
not one pro-life group in the United
States that supports the use of birth
control’ (p. 9). And, as shown by Bush’s
remarks to the anti-abortion rally in Washington,
DC on the most recent anniversary
of Roe v. Wade, the regime now in power shares this agenda. The denial of over the counter Plan B marks both
a shackling on the lives and rights of women, but the further imposition of a
narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism onto how government policy
is made. The fact that this happened
through completely sidestepping the normal means through which the FDA makes
decisions shows just how far these theocrats will go in radically remaking
society to force through their agenda.
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
(Source: ‘Top FDA Staff Say Left out of Contraceptive Ruling’,
Reuters, 5/25/06)