the messiah spotted in governement-subsidized laboratories!

i know people are probably get tired of hearing me blab about sexual and reproductive rights and freedoms etc. etc. etc., but you know, it was just time to point a few things out. and since i know i also tend to get carried away and make things unreadbly long, i had the clever idea to post this one in parts.

what's concerning me lately is — and i'll give you one guess — yes, it's those pesky jesus freaks (pjfs) again. more specifically though, their interference in science. now, it's quite clear that anything into which they inappropriately stick their noses into — and if you ask me, lately, all of their meddling has been inappropriate — turns sour, but i'm particularly discouraged lately by just how much leverage they are managing to pull when it comes to the issue of scientific matters and, in turn, their relation to the governmental side of things. because whether it should be or not, i'd say that most of the scientific research and decisions et al. that are really affecting the general public, are things that end up meaning something to us in terms of federal funding, law, mandates, and all of that. you know dr. weird-fuzz-haired-science-man may well be concocting new biochemical equations [i don't actually know if one can technically "concoct" an equation] in his garage, but that doesn't matter so much to a "regular" person such as myself on any given day, does it? and things like biological and/or nuclear warfare and the science behind those that are apparently being cooked up in all of "those scary countries over there" (right, w?), well, they are going to be a daily issue for people like me if — and only if — one of two things happen: one, they do have the technology and they use it to kill us all (in which case we won't care too much about anything i'm saying; feel free to disregard under those circumstances) or two, our government makes a point out of making it an issue to serve its own agenda (cough-wmd-cough-wmd).

that said, does the recent surge in pjfs digging around in scientific affairs strike anyone else as exceedingly disturbing? there are way too many occurrences of this to point out, and some of them are so large that i don't know that i even want to go there. you know, that whole right to life debate that emcompasses abortion, the death penalty, and stem cell research? well, yes, there's that. [the one thing i will say about that is that i think people often forget that that's a religious debate — since when were the terms "religious" and "moral" interchangeable?] and you know, i don't think i can even address the intelligent design "debate" in greater detail quite yet; i am still attempting to digest the religious rights' claims that the intelligent designer, as supported by science (incomprehensible grunting), is not necessarily god]. and that distinction, is that some sort of effort to pull a fast one? hopefully we can all remember that this is simply a religious sect demanding that children be taught that god created the world in seven days and nothing else. so there are some huge ones lurking out there with which one can make a pretty decent argument that many of today's politicians are ignoring that whole separation of church and state thing. but i also think it's important to draw attention to some of the lesser publicized ones; because they really are affecting people daily. maybe not me, living in the middle of a massive liberal city; maybe not you, either, but they are affecting people. and here i am thinking specifically about the meddlings as pertain to reproductive rights, apart from the life debate that includes abortion.

i think there are four major issues that have arisen on this front lately. they are emergency contraception, sex ed, sti vaccines, and then, one that maybe we don't consider as often as we might: sex itself.

also, christina page just wrote a book called how the pro-choice movement saved america. now not having actually read the book, i don't know if parts of this will seem like a massive rip-off if you have read it. but regardless, after perusing it just a tad for a work task, i stumbled upon some of the most succint and effective quotations about some of this — issues i've been giving thought to for quite awhile. so some of the quotations are from the page book that we definitely all should read.

now, in the order i laid out...

part one: emergency comprehension

emergency contraception. this battle has been raging for awhile now. a few factual things to start: ec is not the same thing as the so-called "abortion pill." ec does not end anything, but rather it prevents conception. pretty huge difference, though not one that pro-lifers are too interested in clarifying. numerous health care professionals agree that ec is an exceedingly useful tool in preventing something we can all agree that we want to prevent: abortion. after all, as i've often said, no one is pro-abortion; everyone — on both sides of this issue — wants to see less of them. and ec is a good place to start. the new england journal of medicine recently estimated that ec could prevent 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year in the united states alone; and as knowledge and popularity increase, so will the instances of prevention. anyway, as you may or may not know, plan b (brand of ec) was recently evaluated for over-the-counter status. after deferrals and stalling, and then after a panel of fda advisery doctors decided that the drug was both safe and effective, the fda decided not to grant it over-the-counter status. not too long after it was denied in spite of the fact that it "passed the fda test," the general accountability office (gao) released a report that confirmed that politicians — not scientists — were the ones who actually made the decision to deny american women access to plan b. and what was this decision based on? morals. enter the pjfs.

dr. susan wood was the director of the office of women's health at the fda at the time, and she resigned her position over the ec controversy. when she announced her resignation from the agency, she said, "i can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled." dr. alastair wood,who almost became commissioner of the fda a few years back and sat on the panel for the review of plan b said conclusively: "it's the first time I know of the [fda] making a decision in which no one has produced any scientific basis for the decision." so politics trumped science. and what's the only thing that can beat politics in the us these days? that's right: religion.

to give you an idea of the type of people we're dealing with here:

"making ec available would be a welcome tool for adult sexual predators who molest family members, children of friends, or students,' jill stanek of concerned women for america told the fda advisers. "they could keep a stash in their bedroom drawer or their pocket to give their victims after committing each rape."

now i'm not quite sure what or whom exactly it is ms. stanek is concerned for, but i for one am frankly concerned for her sanity. of course that's what the doctors had in mind in creating plan b: encouraging rapists! [an fyi: on her website — which i don't recommend visiting — her very brief bio makes mention of a few policy events, some public appearances, a history as a nurse, and lastly, the name of the church she and her family attend.]

and the icing on the cake comes from dr. david hager, who sits on the fda reproductive health drugs advisory committee — though i can't for the life of me figure out why: he refuses to prescribe birth control to single women and actually recommends prayer for pms symptoms — and doesn't leave any room for confusion: "i was asked to write a minority opinion that was sent to the commissioner of the fda. i argued from a scientific perspective, and god took that information, and he used it through this minority report to influence the decision. once again, what satan meant for evil, god turned into good."

so i guess they weren't kidding, eh? god really does get the last word. even at the fda.

[stay tuned for part two: "you got an iud? that sucks! did you lose your license?"]