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Abortion already legal
The United States Government decided that
its citizens had the right to reproductive choice and privacy 20 years
ago. Now, members of Congress are trying to prevent access to early term
abortions.
The European abortion drug mifepristone,
also known as RU-486, has been fighting for approval and support in America
for almost three years.
Since 1996 the Food and Drug Administration
has been toying with the approval of the drug, and now a bill in the House
of Representatives contains wording that would prevent the testing and
development of any drug that would induce abortion.
Congress will consider the Fiscal Year
2000 Agricultural-spending bill this week. The House of Representativesí
version of this bill contains the restrictive language. The Senate has
already passed a version without the restrictions.
Where does Congress get the power to override
another federal agency? Or two, for that matter.
The fact is that the FDA is an independent
organization that researches and develops new medications and foods for
American consumers. It is an agency that is set up to police the food and
drug market.
I don't recall seeing anything in the
Constitution that gives that right to Congress. Those bum politicians are
trying to make decisions that should be reserved for the scientists and
researchers working for the FDA.
Besides taking power from the FDA, Congress
is also attempting override the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in the 1970s that women have the right to early-term abortions. That
has been a federal law for more than 20 years.
Now those bums up on Capitol Hill think
that they can just overrule a Supreme Court decision.
Is it not Congress' job to make laws that
protect the citizens it serves? Taking away the right to privacy and forcing
women into abortion clinics has proven more harmful than abortion drugs.
How many times have we turned on the evening
news to hear that another abortion clinic has been attacked?
Does Congress realize that, as a law-making
body, it has no right to interject its deliberative banter into an area
that is left to actual scientists by an act of the federal government?
The answers are not in plain sight, though.
Unfortunately Congress seems to think
that it can make laws that override previous Supreme Court decisions and
other acts of the federal government. The only thing we can do is voice
our outrage at our presumptuous politicians and our support for the rights
of women who have the courage to take a life or death decision into their
own hands. |
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