Drug the Mothers Act: Obama Bids for Pharmaceutical Support

[liveonearth]

The Drug the Mothers Act is our congress' latest effort to medicate us all for something, (anything!) as long as it profits the big pharmaceutical corporations. Mercola has called a spade a spade--again, and offers tools to help us stop the financial hemorrhage of our tax dollars into corporate pockets while parading as "healthcare". Obama is one of the sponsors of this bogus bill! Is he too busy to notice who this bill profits? Let him know. I can't vote for a man who supports bills like this, much less sponsors them. This is one more sign that BARACK OBAMA IS NOT FOR CHANGE AT ALL, he is for more of the same, government by the corporations, for the corporations. It makes me sad to learn this. I want to believe in him but I don't.

Barack Obama (IL) - co-sponsor of the bill
Tele: 202-224-2854
Fax: 202-228-4260

Here's the link to Mercola's page with a couple of Youtube blurbs about it:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/20/sound-the-alarm-stop-the-dangerous-drug-promoting-quot-mothers-act-quot.aspx

The latest installment in the U.S. national drive to senselessly medicate all citizens for any reason is the “Mothers Act,” co-sponsored by Presidential candidate Barack Obama, and senators Bernard Sanders (VT), Sherrod Brown (OH), and Christopher Dodd (CT).

What is the “Mothers Act”?

The following summary of bill S.1375, provided by the Congressional Research Service, explains:

Mom's Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act or the MOTHERS Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to:

(1) states to provide to women who have recently given birth and their families, before such women leave their birthing centers, education concerning postpartum depression, postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, and postpartum psychosis and to screen new mothers for such postpartum conditions during their first year of postnatal checkup visits; and

(2) public or nonprofit private entities to provide for the delivery of essential services to individuals with such postpartum conditions and their families.

Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the heads of other federal agencies that administer federal health programs, to organize a series of national meetings that are designed to develop a research plan for postpartum depression and psychosis.

Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director, to expand and intensify research relating to postpartum conditions to carry out such plan.

As benevolent as this sounds, it is undoubtedly just another spoke in the wheel of Big Pharma that runs the United States.

A couple of the problems with this bill are that it doesn’t require full disclosure of risks and side effects of antidepressant drugs, nor does it include alternative forms of non-drug treatment.

It is being promoted under the guise of making sure new mothers are protected from, and given the tools to manage, postpartum depression. Can there be any doubt that many women will be deemed in need of medication?

I believe you will see similar drugging rates to that of the non-mandated Teen Screen program, which results in drug prescriptions for about 90 percent of children who take the screening test.

Going Down the Path of Least Common Sense

Not only have antidepressant drugs been documented to be ineffective, they’ve also been linked to serious adverse reactions such as mania, hallucinations, suicidal and sometimes homicidal tendencies. Do we really want to unleash more of these dangerous drugs on pregnant women and mothers?

How many more tragedies like Andrea Yates can we stand?

In case you don’t remember, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the bathtub while on four mind-altering drugs to treat her postpartum depression, which developed after the birth of her fourth child.

It would also be intuitively obvious that taking a synthetic drug during pregnancy could be dangerous, and in most cases ill-advised since they increase your risk of:

Spontaneous abortion
Preterm birth
Stillbirth
Serious birth defects
SIDS
There are many other potential dangers of antidepressants, and if you are not familiar with them it would serve you well to start reviewing them.

For information on non-toxic alternatives, my article “Depression Treatment Options” is a place to start.

How You Can Help Stop the “Mothers Act”

The “Mothers Act” bill was already passed by the House with only three “no” votes. It is currently before the Senate, but there are still several things you can do to voice your concern and help stop this dangerous bill.

Sign the petition at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-dangerous-and-invasive-mothers-act
After you sign the petition, read and distribute the press release found at http://uniteforlife.org/MOTHERpress.htm

Contact your senator(s) by fax and/or telephone
Contact List:

Republicans

Sen. Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Tele: 202-224-3424
Fax: 202-228-0359

Sen. Judd Gregg (NH)
Tele: 202-224-3324
Fax: 202-224-4952

Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN)
Tele: 202-224-4944
Fax: 202-228-3398

Sen. Richard Burr (NC)
Tele: 202-224-3154
Fax: 202-228-2981

Sen. Johnny Isakson (GA)
Tele: 202-224-3643
Fax: 202-228-0724

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Tele: 202-224-6665
Fax: 202-224-5301

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Tele: 202-224-5251
Fax: 202-224-6331

Sen. Pat Roberts (KS)
Tele: 202-224-4774
Fax: 202-224-3514

Sen. Wayne Allard (CO)
Tele: 202-224-5941
Fax: 202-224-6471

Sen. Tom Coburn (OK)
Tele: 202-224-5754
Fax: 202-224-6008

Democrats

Edward Kennedy (MA)
Tele: 202-224-4543
Fax: 202-224-2417

Christopher Dodd (CT) - co-sponsor of the bill.
Tele: 202-224-2823
Fax: 202-224-1083

Tom Harkin (IA)
Tele: 202-224-3254
Fax: 202-224-9369

Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Tele: 202-224-4654
Fax: 202-224-8858

Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Tele: 202-224-5521
Fax: 202-224-2852

Patty Murray (WA)
Tele: 202-224-2621
Fax: 202-224-0238

Jack Reed (RI)
Tele: 202-224-4642
Fax: 202-224-4680

Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY)
Tele: 202-224-4451
Fax: 202-228-0282

Barack Obama (IL) - co-sponsor of the bill
Tele: 202-224-2854
Fax: 202-228-4260

Bernard Sanders (VT) - co-sponsor of the bill
Tele: 202-224-5141
Fax: 202-228-0776

Sherrod Brown (OH) - co-sponsor of the bill
Tele: 202-224-2315
Fax: 202-228-6321

Comments

Mother's Act will save lives

[(Anonymous)]

I continue to be amazed at all of the negative propaganda surrounding this bill. As a mother of four, a PPD survivor and women's health advocate, I view this bill as a necessary first step towards increasing awareness of and much-needed education about perinatal mood disorders among the medical community. I was left undiagnosed for several excruciating months and considered ending my life before I was finally diagnosed with PPD just in time.

This bill is not about drugging women -- it's about providing them with the knowledge and resources to prevent them from suffering the way so many of us and our families have suffered. It's about ensuring that the medical community is more aware of potential signs of perinatal mood disorders. If we don't get a law passed like this that helps women avoid the hell of PPD and other PMD's, we're going to remain in the dark ages.

Warmly,
Kristin Park
http://ppdsurvivor.blogspot.com

antidepressant deficiency

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I understand that post partum depression is a terrible experience for a new mother, and some of my friends have come close to divorce and suicide during it....so I know it is real, I do not deny your experience was dire. And I am sorry that you had to go through it. If your situation was anything like that of my friends, you didn't have any warning or tools to deal with the depression, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Would it be possible for our government to function in an educational role for pregnant women without being prompted by the pharmaceuticals that make the drugs that they are going to recommend? Would it be possible for our communities to provide knowledge and resources to help women through post partum depression without resorting to government mandates? Is it possible for all of us to treat our depression in better ways than SSRI's? I think the answer to all three of these questions is YES and that is why I oppose this law.

The science is piling up. Depression medications increase the risk of suicide in some populations, they work about as well as sugar pills, they don't work as well as exercise, they increase liver damage in anyone who drinks, etc etc etc. There are a great many alternatives that are less destructive, less expensive, and more available to regular people. So I oppose the use of "anti-depressants" in general and not just in the case of depressed mothers.

I also see a pattern in the way pharmaceutical corporations begin to raise public awareness ("educate us") about new diseases/disorders that are characterized entirely by a set of symptoms. They do not educate us about the biochemical pathways involved because they do not know them. They do not understand why all those side effects occur. Pharmaceuticals come up with a drug that seems to work for a set of symptoms, publish biased "science", and market the drug to a malleable public. There is a lot of danger in believing what they say. We take our chances any time we believe that a drug is being sold to us in our best interests. More likely the drug is being sold to us to make money.

Have you read about the levels of pharmaceuticals in our water supply these days? The use of these drugs has increased dramatically in the last decade. Are we that much more depressed than we used to be? And if so, WHY? We certainly aren't depressed because we have a deficiency of anti-depressants.

Mothers Act S.1375

[(Anonymous)]

It amazes me how certain individuals in the USA do not have a CLUE...Bottom line this is not good. I look @ this BILL S.1375 and get ill. Start researching what these politicians are really about (NWO) this is another form of control. Look into where the $$$$ came from to build the Headquarters of (CONTROLLED) Planned Parenthood. Wake up America, other countries around the world think we are a joke. This Bill will pass because I know how powerful these Puppet Masters are..I even have a $100$ bet that this will pass riding with my husband who also does not believe me. FYI... research (Council on Foreign Relations)& (Bilderbergers)