 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Partial birth abortion bill comes
up for another vote in the next week. 2. Still a chance to kill Medicare
“reform” and Rx drug coverage 3. Medical liability bill still alive
and kicking 4. Hillary’s anti-AAPS kiddie drug
plan moves to the House. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Partial birth abortion
H.R. 760 Our highly placed source in Congress
tells us this bill will come up again on Monday, Sept. 8 or Monday, Sept. 15.
The Senate and the House have passed
versions of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The bill makes it
illegal for doctors to commit the "overt act" of killing the partially
delivered fetus unless the mother suffers from a pre-existing condition that
would amount to a full-term pregnancy endangering her
life. For those of you unfamiliar with the
procedure, it consists of partially delivering a fetus in the 20th and 26th
week, then puncturing the brain cavity. In the event of a breech delivery,
partial birth would mean “any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside
the body of the mother.” The President will sign this bill if
it makes it out of committee.
Contact your members to support a conference committee
bill. Medicare Reform &
Prescription Drug Coverage The House and Senate Conference
Committee is working to hammer out a compromise bill of the two versions passed
before the summer break.
The latest figures from the
Congressional Budget Office have upped the estimated costs already – by almost
10%, from $400 billion to $432 for 10 years. By the year 2030, the household cost
will be almost $4,000 to fund this entitlement. AAPS is working with a coalition to
stop this massive new entitlement before it gets out
of the conference committee. The
White House is intent on fulfilling the campaign promise to pass a drug benefit,
and could sign a bad bill if it gets to the President’s desk. We need to
convince Members that the President’s original plan to provide a targeted
benefit for poor seniors is the much better plan. We’ll be sending you
more information next week to contact your Members. Medical
Liability Our Senate source tells
us that the medical liability will be placed on the calendar for a vote or
debate every few weeks this fall in an attempt to force the Democrats – who are
standing firm with the trial lawyers – to go on the record against tort
reform. In other words, even if
they can’t get the bill passed, they’ll be able to use it against them as a
campaign issue. We’ll alert you
when the next vote is pending. Download or read the AAPS
“Patient Primer on Medical Liability.” H. R.
2857 Pediatric Research Equity Act of 2003 The spin doctors are working full
time on one of Hillary Clinton’s pet bills, and in the strange world of
Earlier this year, AAPS won its
case against the FDA for overstepping its authority in its attempts to
require trials of all new drugs on pediatric populations as a condition of
approval. Unfortunately, this defeat did not deter the FDA which turned to
Congress for help in its efforts to increase its power and authority, and S. 650
was passed. Now Rep. Greenwood (R-PA) has a house
version of the same bill. We need to defeat the bill in the House, because
we know the White House supports this effort (HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson
and FDA Commissioner Mark McCellan M.D. both are on record commending the
passage of the bill in the Senate) and will sign it into law.
Supporters are advancing news stories
that portray children as guinea pigs as pediatricians blindly guess what drugs
and how much to proscribe. And of
course, they would have all of the answers if only clinical pediatric trials
were required before a drug’s approval. Our position has been consistent –
pediatric trials would further delay the approval process for adults. Further, children should not be used as
guinea pigs in clinical trials.
Would you volunteer your child?
Contact your representative at both
their local and D.C. offices and tell them to vote against the bill.
Read the AAPS news release
about the court case SIIGN UP FOR
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