Mother Government is at it again. This passed the House with flying colors, and now it's in the hands of the Senate. This act purports to caretake pregnant women and new mothers by requiring screening of them (while pregnant) for signs of depression and beginning treatment (while pregnant) through post-partum. One problem is that this bill aims at only one type of treatment - antidepressants/antipsychotics - which have been known to cause a host of problems (suicide, hallucinations, Andrea Yates, anyone?), while ignoring all other options for treatment. It also doesn't require full disclosure of the risks and side-effects of the medications.
Bill S.1375 is currently in the first stage of the legislative process. It was introduced to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on March 11, 2008. The “Mothers Act” would screen pregnant women for potential depression -- and treat them with antidepressants during and/or after pregnancy to avoid post partum depression.
This YouTube was done by a concerned mother who started a petition. It's worth watching:
You can sign the petition here.
You can read the bill here.
If you have a problem with this, please, please write/call/fax your senators!
If the substance of this bill wasn't enough, after starting this post I found that Barack Obama is a co-sponsor of this bill. We know how much he cares about babies.
2 comments:
Oh gosh, this is just awful. This is definitely an example of the government needing to back off! Our politicians are right now discussing screening all 3 year olds for 'anti-social behaviour' and involving CYFS in their lives at that point.
All a bit too scary for me.
I had no idea about this!! Thank you so much for bringing this to attention. I just signed the petition.
~Bethany
Post a Comment