Politics Made Him Do It

Former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday and now the liberals are hot on The Pres’s behind.  From the Boston Herald:

(S)urgeon general accused the administration yesterday of muzzling him for political reasons on hot-button health issues such as emergency contraception and abstinence-only education.

“The reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas,” said Carmona, who served from 2002 to 2006.

Responding, the White House said Carmona was given the authority and had the obligation to be the leading voice for the health of all Americans.

Show of hands if you think that the White House had a bit more to say than that.  Something also tells me that politics is politics and this doesn’t change between administrations.  Dr. Carmona also complained that he was told which speaking venue he could do and which one he couldn’t.  Sounds like a boss who tells her employees what seminar to go to and what one they can’t. 

Of Course NARAL had a few words to say.  From Commondreams.org News Center:

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona’s revelation that Bush administration officials censored him on issues related to contraception and abstinence-only programs yet another example of how a rigid political ideology is undermining Americans’ access to objective, fact-based information.

“Dr. Carmona deserves credit for further exposing how the Bush administration is using tax dollars to put a far-right political agenda before women’s health,” Keenan said.

Keenan said Dr. Carmona’s comments underscore the Bush administration’s long record of hostility toward sound science and medicine.

Bush administration’s political appointees interfered with the Food and Drug Administration’s decision on the Plan B® emergency contraceptive, delaying the eventual approval of the back-up form of birth control for over-the-counter sale. Further, throughout Bush’s tenure in the White House, his administration and anti-choice congressional allies have continuously increased funding for dangerous and ineffective abstinence-only programs.

WOW!  Talk about being blinded to reality.  Where to start?  How about the accusation of censorship of ”objective fact-based information”.  Nancy, have you ever seen an ultra sound picture of a fetus?  Why are you trying to prevent women who want an abortion from seeing those pictures if they want to?  Ultra sounds are fact based aren’t they?  While I’m at it - Why don’t you try to stop the abortion clinics, like the NJ MMA, from injuring or killing women?  Is this because you don’t want to look at the fact based information of the health department when they told you the conditions of the MMA?  Conditions that was worse than many Veterinary Hospitals across America?  I could go on and on with this, but I don’t have the space on this website.

Let’s move onto politicians using tax dollars putting politics before women’s health.  See above on how Pro-Choice organizations look the other way when abortion mills are treating women worse than how they would treat their dog.  Hmm.. tax dollars for a political agenda.  That sounds kinda like forcing tax payers to give money to Planned Parenthood doesn’t it?

Plan B is not a wonder drug.  I hate to tell you that.  How is giving women an OTC drug that has a large amount of hormones a good thing?  Especially when you consider that the woman who takes this drug hasn’t been evaluated by a physician first to make sure this won’t harm her.  What was it with women going into menopause?  That’s right; Doctors had women go on hormone replacement therapy (HPT) to help with the symptoms.  Didn’t several reports show a link between cancer and HRT?  Didn’t many women go through psychological problems when they were removed from this treatment?  These psychological problems included suicide in some cases.  And now you think giving a woman a huge amount of this drug is something that should be pushed through the approval process without proper testing?  How is this benefiting women again? 

How can abstinence education work when people like you tell teens that it won’t work and they are going to do “it” anyway?  It takes a village to raise a child right?  Doesn’t that mean that the village should be supportive of abstinence if that is the best route for them to go?  We’ve been doing it your way for quite some time now.  According to the Guttmacher Institute there are 9.1 million new sexually transmitted infections diagnosed among people aged 15 - 24 year olds every year.  Your way doesn’t seem to be working. 

When it comes to women’s health the Pro-Choice agenda isn’t working.  Abortion Mills are seriously or fatally injuring women while you look the other way.  Hormonal drugs have been known to cause problems but you want to have Plan B OTC without any thought to women’s (especially teenagers) well being.  We are going to be the next South Africa when it comes to sexual diseases because you want to ignore the statistics.

How about if you actually do something to help women’s health?  Instead of worrying about your political agenda.