Senate Bill Proposes to Screen and Medicate Mothers

From http://www.jbs.org/node/7435

Senate Bill Proposes to Screen and Medicate Mothers
Ann Shibler
JBS
March 14, 2008

Here’s another fabulously clever way for the government to have more people drawn into its clutches through a nationwide screening program, this time focusing on post-partum depression. And it is brought to you by the very busy and liberal Senator Robert Menendez, (NJ), and co-sponsored by Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Introduced in May 2007, and presently lodged in the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, S. 1375 would provide the impetus and funds necessary to institute a program that would promote referral of mothers-to-be and new moms by nurses, doctors and mid-wives to "mental health care specialists" if they exhibit any signs of "mood disorders," even if it’s during the pregnancy.
The bill is a bitter pill, but its language is unsurprisingly sugar coated:
A bill to ensure that new mothers and their families are educated about postpartum depression, screened for symptoms, and provided with essential services, and to increase research at the National Institutes of Health on postpartum depression.
The use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of antidepressants — i.e., psychotropic drugs — would be recommended and administered as part of the "essential services" program.
The effectiveness of SSRIs that include Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, etc., have been questioned. There have also been concerns about side effects from the drugs leading to violent behavior.
Most SSRIs carry black box warnings for "suicide" as a side effect, or even "homicidal ideation." Obviously real physical and mental damage could occur in unborn developing babies if their mothers are coerced into taking these dangerous, addictive, and unpredictable drugs, not to mention to the mothers themselves.
A popular opinion among medical caregivers these days is that "post-partum mood disorders" are a sign of an underlying biochemical imbalance, so the answer must be drugs. But many women report getting through their real post-partum depression with the love, help, and support of family and friends, and alternative methods. Some have discovered alternatives (scroll down toward the end) to treating post-partum depression that can be as simple as diet changes, supplements, or exercise.
The relative effectiveness of drug treatments for post-partum depression or for any other medical condition is not really the point, however. The real issue is federal involvement. A course of treatment should be an individualized arrangement formed through doctor-patient consultation. The federal government should not be involved, given the potential that Big Pharma lobbyists might well desire a program, such as the one proposed, because it would lead to lucrative sales.
Not content with "mental health" screenings for school children and military veterans that have real and permanent consequences, now big government plans to intrude into the womb as well.

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Mothers Act: Pregnancy as Mental Illness
Byron Richards
Wellness Resources
March 14, 2008

Immediate Consumer Action is Needed to Stop Mothers Act.
The Mothers Act is pending legislation that will indoctrinate hundreds of thousands of mothers into taking dangerous psych drugs. It is a great example of how the Big Pharma lobby controls Congress to the detriment of health, as well as needlessly and dramatically inflating the costs of our health care system for everyone. Like any piece of legislation it purports to address a troubling issue – in this case the mood distress of mothers following birth known as postpartum depression. It is true that 10% - 15% of women need some assistance in dealing with this topic – but the majority of them sure don’t need it from Big Pharma. That is the Big Lie.
The Mothers Act (S. 1375: Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act) has the net affect of reclassifying the natural process of pregnancy and birth as a mental disorder that requires the use of unproven and extremely dangerous psychotropic medications (which can also easily harm the child). Urgent consumer action (see below) is needed to stop this atrocity, as the Senate could now vote any day.
It is my understanding that the process of birth, the intimate bonding of mother and child, and the placing of significant responsibility on the father is all part of a healthy culture and the backbone of the fabric that makes strong families and consequently our great nation. I fail to see why we need laws that force health care professionals to emphasize the idea that the process is some type of mental illness affecting 80% of all women – what a bogus pile of crap.
The Mothers Act proposes sweeping and dramatic changes in the delivery of pregnancy care by all health professionals. It demands that health professionals indoctrinate pregnant women into mental health treatment options for mild depression-like symptoms experienced during or following pregnancy, including moderate symptoms they call “baby blues” which they say affects 80% of pregnant women. In other words, this is a massive federate health mandate to get the majority of pregnant and nursing mothers on psych drugs – a new target market for Big Pharma.

The bill was obviously written by the Big Pharma lobby and its passage into law would be considered laughable except that it is actually happening. The bill seeks to require taxpayer-funded grants to treat postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, as defined in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. For those of you who don’t know, this is the manual of vaguely defined mental health issues used by Big Pharma to allow the sale of their expensive psych drugs and get payment from Medicare and Medicaid at taxpayer expense. While some people certainly need help, this system racks up billions in fraudulent sales per year – including the sale of dangerous antipsychotic medications to our children. The Big Pharma lobby last year spent tens of millions to ensure the government would continue to cover vulnerable children so they could capitalize on this blatant scam.
As far as the Mothers Act goers, how can taxpayers be expected to pay for drug treatments when the problem that isn’t even understood? As the bill freely acknowledges “The causes of postpartum depression are complex and unknown.” In a mysterious leap of faith the bill says that this condition requires medication to treat it even though such medication has never been proven clinically effective and carries serious side effect risks for the mother and baby, including cardiovascular birth defects.

The bill goes on to set up a system of taxpayer-funded grants to pay for the treatments. It even commits you the taxpayer to funding “clinical research for the development and evaluation of new treatments for postpartum conditions, including new biological agents.” This means taxpayers will now foot the bill of Big Pharma drug development including the most dangerous new category of totally unproven pie-in-the-sky biological drugs that cost hundreds of billions of dollars to develop and can irreparably injure within minutes!
Yes, and once you have paid a fortune to develop these biological gene-altering agents then you will pay the drug companies price so that they can be freely dispensed to hundreds of thousands of pregnant and nursing mothers. Taxpayers will be on the hook for tens of billions of wasted dollars.
Immediate Consumer Action is Needed
The Mothers Act has already passed the House (H.R. 20, the Melanie Blocker Stokes Postpartum Depression, Research and Care Act). Word has it that it is being snuck out of the HELP committee on Thursday or Friday of this week and may be rammed through the Senate without any debate before the Easter break.
Rather unbelievably up to this point is that the cause of defeating this legislation has fallen onto the shoulders of one young mother, Amy Philo. When she struggled with postpartum stress she was placed on the very same psych drugs advocated for use in the Mothers Act legislation. She began having violent thoughts towards her child and suicidal thinking. Her not very bright doctor had her double and then triple her dose, nearly killing her. She is lucky to be alive today and wants to warn other mothers of the dangers inherent in the Mothers Act. Click here if you would like to view her YouTube story.

Immediate consumer action is needed to stop the Big Pharma-crafted Mothers Act. Here are the two action steps you can take right now to help make a difference: 1) Go to my CapWiz page and with two clicks of a mouse send an opposition letter to your Senators. 2) Sign this petition, which is being used to pressure Senators on the HELP committee.
As natural health care professionals my wife Mary and I have helped many women with pregnancy and postpartum health issues. We have plenty of experience in natural options that work and four grown children of our own. To read more about natural solutions I have used for years click here. To read more about Mary’s tips on successful pregnancy, her view on the Mothers Act, and to post your own comments on the issue, click here.
THE MOTHERS ACT MUST BE STOPPED – YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY NEEDED