Mothers Tell Harry Reid to Read Up On FDA Antidepressant Warningsby Staff
August 11, 2008
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- On July 28, the Senate considered Majority Leader Harry Reid's motion to invoke cloture on a 398-page, $10 billion package dubbed the "Coburn Omnibus." As reported by the New York Times, Reid stated, "Not a single one of the 35 bills in this package are partisan or controversial," He went on to remark that anyone voting "no" would have to explain to his or her constituents.
"These bills have been passed by the House of Representatives and their respective Senate committees with overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans." Section D of the omnibus is The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act, which would institute subjective screening for mental illness in expectant and new mothers and increase the sales for antidepressants and other drugs. It has never even been discussed in the appropriate Senate committee, much less approved overwhelmingly.
Reid neglected to mention The MOTHERS Act during his speeches Monday. Yet in a comment to the Washington Post, he accused the Senators who opposed cloture of voting against mothers suffering from postpartum depression. Perhaps Senator Reid can explain to the American people why he supported a bill that would increase cases of spontaneous abortions and fatal birth defects while causing more mothers to kill themselves or their children. On the floor, Senator Dick Durbin alluded to the bill but stated that Melanie Stokes had killed herself just a few days after giving birth.
In fact, in 2001 Melanie Stokes took her life when 3 months postpartum, but only after she was given four successive cocktails of antidepressant, anti-anxiety, and antipsychotic drugs as well as electroshock. The FDA issued the first-ever black box warning for suicide on antidepressant drugs in September, 2004. Numerous media stories have surfaced about objections to The MOTHERS Act and controversy surrounding it. The bill's lead sponsor Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who accepted more than $300,000 from pharmaceutical donors during the last election cycle, even went so far as to tell a reporter from the New Jersey Record that he considers the opposition "wrong-minded."
At least for now, the "Coburn Omnibus" seems less of a threat. But victims and survivors are left wondering if Senators Reid, Durbin, and Menendez intentionally disregard matters of life and death, or whether these Congressmen are simply ignorant and out of touch.
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