Medication and Pregnancy Proposed rules from the FDA would require drug companies to provide more comprehensive information on the potential impact of prescription drugs on fetuses and pregnant women, Judith Grahm reports in the Chicago Tribune. The proposed FDA rule is now open for public comment for the next 90 days and
will be finalized once the agency reviews those comments and makes additional
changes, if warranted. You can submit comments to the FDA on the Regulations.gov website, here. On the website you can also read supporting materials and other public comments, including those of the drug companies the regualtion would affect.

The Next Ethical Frontier in Family Planning
Gender selection technology is rapidly progressing and will become a
financially viable option for many in the near future, but is gender
selection too much power for parents? What are the ethical limits of
family planning? Many European countries have banned sex selection but
there are no regulations on the books yet in the United States. The
Morning Call, a Pennsylvania newspaper, ran a feature yesterday, with a video interview of a doctor offering the service, on the subject of sex selection that’s worth cheking out.

UN Reports 3 Million Receiving HIV Treatment
3 Million people in low- and middle-income countries are receiving
anti-retroviral treatment for HIV but nearly twice that number are in
need of the treatment. Still, the report calls this a "remarkable
acheivement for public health." The report (PDF)
also shows that newly reinforced efforts to prevent HIV with counseling
and contraceptives at family planning clinics is working and deserves
more attention. Stepped-up commitment to male circumcision in healvily
affected areas is also shown to be working

Evidence Helps Make Good Policy, Use It Dr. Lauren Smith, the Massachusetts state Department of Public Health’s medical director, recommended an "evidence-based" response to the spike in pregnancies at a Massachusetts high shcool. She included a reccomendation that the school’s health clinic provide students access to birth control.

"We have urged them to use an evidence-based response to the
problem, which would involve a school-based response," Smith said. "Our pledge
is that we will work with them to respond in a way that is sound public health
principles and practice. That would include contraceptive counseling and
services."

The evidence Dr. Smith refers to is cited thoroughly in this letter from scientists urging Congress not to fund failed abstinence-only policies any longer.

Hagee Hits Volume Four Talk2Action.org will not let McCain forget about his recently denounced former endorser pastor John Hagee. In a video released today by the website Hagee is heard saying in a 2003 sermon that the coming anti-christ will be gay and at least partly Jew, with "fierce" features.