Stop the Mothers Act: Save Expectant Mothers from Mandatory Drugging with Antidepressants

Friday, September 19, 2008 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: The Mothers Act, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) Big Pharma is pushing hard for passage of The Mothers Act, a bill that would require all pregnant women to be "screened" for depression and then drugged with patented antidepressant drugs. The bill is being reintroduced by Sen. Harry Reid, who is reportedly attempting to include it in a legislative package called the "Coburn Omnibus Bill."

Antidepressants are linked to violent thoughts and suicidal behavior in expectant mothers and new moms. Rather than treating the root cause of maternal depression -- nutritional deficiencies -- the medical industry wants to put expectant mothers on dangerous psychotropic drugs that may impact the health of their newborns.

NaturalNews interviewed one mother who, after being forcefully put on antidepressant drugs, began to hallucinate murdering her newborn. When she sought help at the local hospital, they doubled her dose of SSRIs and had her arrested and held against her will. Later, once she realized the drugs were causing her violent thoughts, she stopped taking the drugs and her violent hallucinations vanished within days.

This woman, Amy Philo, founded UNITE (www.UniteForLife.org) and is organizing grassroots opposition to The Mothers Act in order to protect women (and their children) from mandatory medications with psych drugs.

NaturalNews urges readers to contact their Senators in Washington (see below) and voice their opposition to The Mothers Act.

To learn more about this issue, watch this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUiszFyIby4

Also, visit Amy Philo's website at www.UniteForLife.org

Also consider printing and signing the following letter, then faxing it (or mailing it) to your Senator:

Letter of opposition to the Mothers Act

DON'T LET THE 110th CONGRESS BE RESPONSIBLE FOR INCREASING ANTIDEPRESSANT-RELATED BIRTH DEFECTS AND INFANT DEATHS.

DO NOT PASS THE MOTHERS ACT AS PART OF AN OMNIBUS PACKAGE.

The MOTHERS Act is a highly controversial bill, considering the growing public awareness that antidepressants have serious and even deadly side effects. This bill, if passed, will assuredly increase the number of pregnant women and new mothers being put on antidepressant drugs. There are already too many pregnant women being put on antidepressants evidenced by the FDA's adverse reaction reports (MedWatch) listed below. This bill will assuredly increase the number of pregnant women and new mothers being prescribed antidepressants documented by the U.S. FDA to cause suicidal ideation, mania, worsening depression and birth defects. FDA's MedWatch System (Adverse Drug Reactions) Already Has Overwhelming Evidence of Spontaneous Abortions, Premature Babies and Birth Defects from SSRI Antidepressants:

Doctors, other health care providers, pharmacists, lawyers and consumers filed the following adverse drug reaction reports with the FDA's MedWatch system during 2004-2007 concerning pregnant women taking antidepressants (the most common and recommended treatment for women diagnosed with postpartum depression). In all the reports below, antidepressants were cited as the primary suspected drug to have caused the adverse reaction in pregnant women:

145 spontaneous abortions
150 premature babies
208 babies born with heart disease
218 babies born with defects

The FDA states that only 1-10% of side effects are even reported to their MedWatch database. Using a median range of 5% being reported, the actual number of pregnant women experiencing adverse reactions to antidepressant drugs is estimated as follows:

2,900 spontaneous abortions
3,000 premature births
4,160 babies born with heart disease
4,360 babies born with birth defects

The "Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act," also known as "The MOTHERS Act" was named after Melanie Stokes, a new mother who was subjected to a cocktail of psychiatric drugs and electroshock after being diagnosed with post-partum depression. It was only after she had been administered drugs documented by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to cause suicidal ideation that she committed suicide. There is too much controversy over antidepressants to pass any legislation that could increase the administration of these drugs to pregnant women and new mothers. Do not allow the pharmaceutical interests to put new mothers and their unborn children at risk. Do not pass the MOTHERS Act.

Signed

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Printed Name:

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Address & Phone Number

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