Pious Forwards: August 2006 Archives

Just got this from Grassfire.org:

As feared, The Food and Drug Administration has announced its approval of Plan B (known as the "morning after pill"), to be sold over-the-counter for women age 18 and older.

Plan B is an exceedingly strong emergency contraception pill. In fact, according to Planned Parenthood, Plan B can be equivalent to taking as many as 40 progesterone birth control pills--which are only available by prescription!

Aside from this case, the FDA has never approved an over-the-counter medicine when a lower dose of the same drug requires a prescription.

This "dual status" (over-the-counter for women over the age of 16 and prescription-only for those who are younger) is a new type of approval plan--not authorized by Congress, and hasn't undergone a formal rule-making process.

Also in question is the FDA's ability to ensure that store clerks are checking age ID for Plan B. Reservations about illegal resale to minors, concerns about child predators and rapist obtaining the drug to cover their crimes, have also been swept aside.

Serious concerns also remain about the potential deleterious effects of Plan B on women, girls and nascent human life.

Grassfire has put together a number of key links to give you greater insight about Plan B and the FDA announcement:

FDA announcement:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01436.html

Acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach's memo:

http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/planB/avememo.pdf.

Key websites explaining concerns with the availability of Plan B:

http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11365/BLI/dotcommentary/index.htm,

http://www.cwfa.org/hot-topics.asp#map

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IF06H01&f=WA06H29

http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/contraception/morningafterpill.htm.

I just got this report from the American Family Association:

New School Program Will Exploit School Kids For Private Financial Gain

The Washington Post has announced that a new company, BusRadio, plans to install radio equipment in school buses as a way to target corporate advertising using school children as a captive audience. The company's first pilot project is in Massachusetts, and is scheduled to begin in September, targeting children as young as five. Click Here to read the Washington Post article.

After Massachusetts, BusRadio plans to go nationwide with their program. Children riding school buses will be forced to listen to the music and commercial ads while on the bus.

The primary purpose of the BusRadio is to make money for their company. And the way they plan to do that is to sell their captive audience to advertisers.

School children should not be used as a vehicle to sell commercial advertising. This program needs to be stopped before it is started.

I received the following on the Family Research Council email list. We should pray for Canada and their unique situation there (not having a First Amendment):

When an unapologetically conservative talk show host in Alberta, Canada's most conservative province, posted a letter on his website, the feathers flew. Rev. Stephen Boisson's letter criticized the main aspects of the homosexual agenda in Canada. Furious, a professor at the University of Calgary filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The petulant prof wants to shut down three websites--concernedchristians.ca, freetospeak.ca and freedomradionetwork.ca
So far, Craig Chandler, the talk show host, has faced legal costs approaching $100,000. His fees could run as high as $250,000. "The thing about a Human Rights Commission complaint is that it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, you still have to foot the bill. If I want to get our money back, I have to take them to civil court," he said. And that, Chandler points out, will only cost more money. This is another powerful example of how the left misuses government to harass Christians and suppress free speech on important public issues. Canada does not have a First Amendment. We do. But for how long?