…when you’re a woman

Way to go, WaPo:

When is $4 million really $2.8 million?

One answer is “When you’re a woman,” as the Labor Department has repeatedly found that women earn about 75 cents for every dollar that men earn for the same work.

But this week’s answer is “When you are the Office of Women’s Health” within the Food and Drug Administration. That office, which was at the center of a politically damaging storm over the emergency contraceptive “Plan B,” just had more than one-quarter of this year’s $4 million operating budget quietly removed, insiders say.

Now that is a beautiful lead.

The fact that the Office of Women’s Health is being quietly under-funded is not an accident, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s happening now. It’s the FDA’s way of telling the little ladies to step down and shut up:

Women’s health advocates inside and outside the agency suspect they are witnessing, at least in part, a long-anticipated payback for the trouble the office stirred during the prolonged debate over nonprescription sales of Plan B. Taking a position that chafed the administration’s conservative base, the office had stood up for scientific research that had backed the safety and appropriateness of such sales.

Standing up for science and appropriate healthcare in the face of the virginity-or-death crowd does not go over well. I hope that the FDA gets taken to task over this underhanded move. And I hope that progressive politicians don’t let this one slip under the radar.

Author: Jill has written 4631 posts for this blog.

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6 Responses

  1. 1
    defenestrated 3.2.2007 at 12:21 am |

    Wow, it was one thing when it was just cancer and unwanted babies.

    But now I’m starting to think they really just want to kill us…

  2. 2
    Hawise 3.2.2007 at 9:41 am |

    Wimmins is diff’rent, if we study them then we will get all sortsa bad results that don’t help real people (men). If we study mens then we get good results that will help all the useful people (men) and SAVE society as we know it.

    Sometimes I’m not in the mood to save society as I know it.

  3. 3
    One Utah » Blog Archive » 3.2.2007 at 1:48 pm |

    [...] wn as “actual human beings”) .” Jill has another good one about the dust up with the Office of Women’s Health losing more than 25% of their bud [...]

  4. 4
    Katie 3.2.2007 at 4:13 pm |

    I hope that progressive politicians don’t let this one slip under the radar.

    They will.

  5. 5
    Katie 3.2.2007 at 4:14 pm |

    Wimmins is diff’rent, if we study them then we will get all sortsa bad results that don’t help real people (men). If we study mens then we get good results that will help all the useful people (men) and SAVE society as we know it.

    ROTFL! Saving this one in my diary for future reference & use!

  6. 6
    Clíodhna 3.3.2007 at 12:09 pm |

    Cool! Im only 12 but you are quite right.

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