a handmaid’s tale?

November 11, 2004 — Leave a comment

i`m not a woman and there are some people that would accuse me of being alarmist, but is no one else trouble by the continued erosion of reproductive rights in the US lately? Roe v Wade is intact for now, but just barely.

the re-appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA`s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee; which is responsible for decisions “relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics, gynecology and related specialities, including hormone therapy, contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to surgical procedures for sterilisation and pregnancy termination.”; is a distressing step backward. Hager is pro-life Ob/Gyn, campaigned to get the FDA to withdraw approval RU-486 [mifepristone], a drug that terminates pregnancies and has authored books that encourage prayer and scriptures as cures for pms.

Hager alone is not cause for worry, there are now many pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for the Pill on moral grounds and states are proposing laws to protect those decisions. and in some states laws already exist; Arkansas, Mississippi, and South Dakota all have refusal clause laws that specifically permit a pharmacist to refuse to fill certain prescriptions, including oral contraceptives. and now the pharmacist are also being joined by a number of doctors.

at issue is a woman`s right to manage her own reproductive health. what gives anyone the right to decide on her behalf? are these pharmacists and doctors going to adopt or provide for the children of these women?

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