The Over-the-Counter Emergency Contraception Saga, Or Why Medicine and Politics Do Not Mix

Q: Guess who is suing the FDA and why?

A: The Center for Reproductive Rights over the FDA's refusal to make emergency contraception (EC) available over-the-counter to women of all ages.

***Note: When you read any of the included links, replace "Plan B" with "Plan B One-Step". Plan B, a 2 pill brand, is no longer manufactured and it's been replaced with Plan B One-Step, a 1 pill brand.***

For more than a year and a half, the FDA and the Obama Administration has ignored a court order to reconsider its refusal to make emergency contraception (EC) available over-the-counter to women of all ages. The Center has given the FDA ample time to end its baseless restrictions, but as of today it has not taken any steps to comply with the court order—most recently saying it will wait to review a new application from the manufacturer that may or may not be filed at some unspecified time in the future.

The Center is now taking the FDA back to court and are calling on supporters to write the FDA Commissioner to take immediate action to end restrictions on emergency contraception.

At the start of his administration, President Obama declared that politics would no longer play a role in U.S. science policy, stating, "we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology." And soon after FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg was confirmed, she told reporters that it was her mantra to make FDA's decisions more "science-based."

So in March 2009, when the court ruled that the FDA acted in "bad faith and in response to political pressure" when it repeatedly and unreasonably delayed making a decision on Plan B and departed in significant ways from its normal procedures, it thought the new administration would "conduct a fair assessment of the scientific evidence." This has obviously not happened, and the Center is returning to the courts to make sure the FDA complies with medical and scientific consensus that says there is no rationale for age restrictions to emergency contraception.

Have You Met My Imaginary Online Boyfriend?

Are women you meet online, who may, or may not, be figments of your imagination, and for whom you have no contact information the latest trend in flimsy alibis?

Tom Hackbarth goes looking for a girlfriend.

Tom Hackbarth, a Minnesota State Representative, started the trend when he used armed staking of a woman he met online, who may only exist in his imagination, to explain his presence in the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood clinic.

And now we have the story of a suicidal father who claims to have entrusted his three sons to the care of a woman with whom he had an online relationship but whose existence police hasn't been able to confirm.

Pfc. Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks Are True Heroes

Their ongoing effort to insure America's undisputed world dominance by having the leaders, politicians, diplomats, military and secret services of foreign countries, friend and foe alike, die of laughter at our ineptitude must be applauded.

Pfc. Bradley Manning

On a more serious note, as a government, when your national interests are defeated by a 22-year-old confused loser like Bradley Manning and assorted WikiLeaks bozos it is high time to call a time out and reassess you competence.

The US embassy cables are marked "Sipdis" – secret internet protocol distribution. They were compiled as part of a programme under which selected dispatches, considered moderately secret but suitable for sharing with other agencies, would be automatically loaded on to secure embassy websites, and linked with the military's Siprnet internet system.

They are classified at various levels up to "SECRET NOFORN" [no foreigners]. More than 11,000 are marked secret, while around 9,000 of the cables are marked noforn. The embassies which sent most cables were Ankara, Baghdad, Amman, Kuwait and Tokyo.

More than 3 million US government personnel and soldiers, many extremely junior, are cleared to have potential access to this material, even though the cables contain the identities of foreign informants, often sensitive contacts in dictatorial regimes. Some are marked "protect" or "strictly protect".

Last spring, 22-year-old intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was charged with leaking many of these cables, along with a gun-camera video of an Apache helicopter crew mistakenly killing two Reuters news agency employees in Baghdad in 2007, which was subsequently posted by WikiLeaks. Manning is facing a court martial.

In July and October WikiLeaks also published thousands of leaked military reports from Afghanistan and Iraq. These were made available for analysis beforehand to the Guardian, along with Der Spiegel and the New York Times.

Update: More here.

(via)

Catholic God Revises Position on Condom Use

In 2009 God told Pope Benedict XVI to tell you that using condoms increases the problem of AIDS. It's now a year later and it looks like God has informed the Pope that it has an update on its position on condom use and HIV:

VATICAN CITY – In a seismic shift on one of the most profound — and profoundly contentious — Roman Catholic teachings, the Vatican said Tuesday that condoms are the lesser of two evils when used to curb the spread of AIDS, even if their use prevents a pregnancy.

...

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters Tuesday that he asked the pope whether he intended his comments to apply only to men. Benedict replied that it really didn't matter, the important thing was that the person took into consideration the life of another.

"I personally asked the pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine," Lombardi said. "He told me no. The problem is this: ... It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship."

"This is if you're a man, a woman, or a transsexual. ... The point is it's a first step of taking responsibility, of avoiding passing a grave risk onto another," Lombardi said.

Any guesses on what God's position on condom use will be next year?

What Is Going on at the U.N.?

Between the U.N. Human Rights Council and the United Nations Women's Rights Council it's getting harder and harder to see the utility of subsidizing the New York City fun-filled adventure of a bunch of bureaucrats.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Veteran's Day

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields, the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place, and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

- Lt.-Col. John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

It's Good To Be the Prosecutor, the Rev. Philip L. "Flip" Benham Edition

Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano, a former mob boss, is being held under conditions reserved for terrorists after he was accused of scribbling a "hit list" with the names of the judge, a prosecutor and cooperating witnesses five years ago.

Meanwhile, Rev. Philip L. "Flip" Benham, director of the Dallas-based Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, convicted stalker of Ob/Gyns and proud creator and distributor of "Wanted"-style posters of the doctors, which included their names and home addresses, is sentenced to two years probation.

So, to recap:

Judges and prosecutors: The mere accusation of scribbling a "hit list" gets you held under conditions reserved for terrorists.

Ob/Gyns: The actual distribution of a "hit list" and stalking conviction gets you 2 years probation.