Mother’s Act promotes pregnancy as lucrative market for Big Pharma

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4094.shtmlWomen of childbearing years represent the most lucrative market for the makers of psychiatric drugs. The knowledge that infants were being born with birth defects and suffering a withdrawal syndrome when these drugs were used during pregnancy was hidden for decades. Knowledge of these terrible risks would have caused a major drop in sales to this customer base.

Ever since the warnings about birth defects started trickling out a few years ago, the drug companies apparently have been plotting to find ways to reverse their negative impact. But the most sinister plot ever developed is a bill moving for approval in the US Senate right now, called the “Melanie Blocker-Stokes Mother’s Act,” to set up the screening of all pregnant women for mental illness.

The bill is promoted under the ruse of screening for postpartum depression. But a true picture of the target population of this massive drug-pushing scheme is evident in the propaganda submitted to support the passage of the original bill in the US House of Representatives and the programs already in place in various states.

The legislation was first introduced in the House in January 2007 by Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush. Under “Background and Need for Legislation,” House Report 110-375 states in part: “Depression is twice as common in women as it is in men, with its peak incidence during the primary reproductive years -- ages 25 to 45. Because women are more likely to experience depression during these years, they are especially vulnerable to developing depression during pregnancy and after childbirth.”

In February 2007, the “Postpartum Mood Disorders Prevention Act,” was introduced in Illinois. The orchestrated attempts to pass this bill included planting reports in the media with claims that pregnant women are at risk for a whole list of mental disorders. For instance, on March 1, 2007 an article in the Naperville Sun stated, “New moms face increased risks for not only postpartum depression, but also bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and other disorders, according to one of the largest studies of psychiatric illness after childbirth.”

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Pregnancy as a cottage industry

New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez is the lead sponsor of the Mother’s Act in the Senate. New Jersey is home to a long list of drug companies. The bill was first introduced in May 2007, but was stuck in committee until Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced an $11 billion omnibus package called “Advancing America’s Priorities Act.” Senator Reid tried to get the Act passed on July 22, 2008, by slipping it in the omnibus, but failed.
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wish I could post all of the article. a must read for women.

...more psychologically unstable than men are because of their "hormones".

Crime, war (specifically who starts them) and domestic abuse and human rights abuse stats tell a different story, but what the hell, let's perpetuate the myth anyway, eh? If it helps drug companies make a PROFIT - why NOT?

:mad:

hormones do cause problems in women and it's ridiculous we don't have a testing regiment to identify which hormones are out of balance and how to correct it. It doesn't need to be shameful to have hormone imbalances. I suspect men have testosterone imbalances too, but we put those men in prison.

...it's just drug companies out to make a profit off of the urban myth that all women are looney because of their hormones.