For the 123,361,635th Time: Contraceptives don't prevent abortion

Another post for the "We told you so file."

Plan B was a racket from the beginning.

Don Downing, UW professor of pharmacy and bed partner with NARAL Washington, couldn't stop blathering about "a second chance at preventing pregnancy" and lowering the abortion rate. It was always the come on we said it was. In the end he went home richer after betraying his fellow pharmacists to the state's abortion industry to say nothing of the women he's hurt thru his shameless promotion of Plan B and contraceptives.

Yes, Don Downing and Naral and Planned Parenthood are getting their way but they can't have it both ways. They will be told exactly what they are doing.

http://humanlife.net/display_news.htm?nid=714
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/contraception-and-crony-capitalism

Barr Labs Doesn't Deny Secret Deal with Planned Parenthood, Fails to Offer Evidence of Plan B Effectiveness

By Jonathan B.
In an interview with Abortion In Washington, the manufacturer of the lucrative 'morning-after pill' known as Plan B did not deny that it has a secret deal with Planned Parenthood to provide them the drug at a massively discounted price of $4.25 per unit.

This deal between Barr Labs and the nation's largest and most profitable abortion conglomerate has been reported in the Boston Globe and many other places. It was first made public from court documents in California in 2004.

AIW is the first news source to confront Barr Labs directly with this evidence. This deep discount is highly controversial because PP sells this drug to clients at anywhere from $24-$38 per unit, and bills Medicaid $10.15, plus an $11.50 "dispensing fee", for a total of $21.65. All of this adds up to many millions of dollars of pure profit. Customers generally have no idea that they are being gouged with these enormous markups.

Carol Cox, Barr spokeswoman, would only say: "I am unfamiliar with the court case to which you are referring," and then weakly added: "As a matter of Company policy, Barr does not comment on litigation matters, nor on product pricing."

AIW had not asked them to comment on the litigation.

Ms. Cox also conspicuously failed to make any effort to answer our questions about Plan B's reported ineffectiveness in achieving its widely advertised goals.

Barr Labs, Prof. Don Downing of the University of Washington, Planned Parenthood, and countless governmental health and human services departments have been promoting Plan B as a way to dramatically reduce the abortion rate, by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies.

But we pointed out to Ms. Cox that there have been no studies anywhere in the world showing any correlation between increased Plan B availability and reduced rates of unintended pregnancies.

"Can you please comment on that?" we asked.

Silence, from the drug's manufacturer. Dead silence. A subsequent repeated request to get this question answered met with similar silence.

We followed up with a specific, local example.

We told Ms. Cox that Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) reports that they are selling about 120,000 units of Plan B a year -- for an apparent profit of about $2.4 million -- yet their abortion business has been growing at about 11% every year during this time. Moreover, we added, they have claimed that their sales of her firm's product have resulted in many hundreds of fewer unintended pregnancies: "This prevents an estimated 600-800 unintended pregnancies every month, about half of which would have resulted in terminations," reads PPWW's 2005 Annual Report.

"How would you explain that?" we inquired. Again, Barr Labs had nothing to say.

When we spoke to PPWW's Brian Cutler about this topic, he squirmed for a bit, and eventually asked "Well, does it really matter?"

We have made repeated efforts to speak to Prof. Don Downing, who runs around the country getting the drug distributed as widely as he can, presumably for financial gain. Despite contacts by email and voicemail, Dr. Downing has had nothing to offer in his defence.

Pharmacists for Life International Executive Director Bo Kuhar condemned Barr's refusal to answer such simple questions. He told AIW: "Once again, the largest abortion provider has found a creative way to kill more preborn children through chemicals and make a greater profit margin doing it," He added: "We are not surprised at [their] sleezy business dealings [and] siphoned off over $300 million in taxpayer money and made a profit of over $112 million last year."

The Contraception Deception

Not since the editorial board came out in support of partial birth abortion has the Seattle Times published such a wicked and shameful editorial. The editorial – Lift the Plan B Ban – is wicked because it willfully and haughtily lies to people about Plan B and misrepresents the pleas of the pharmacists who refuse to sell it. It is shameful because at a time when the public needs factual information about this drug in particular, how it came to be on the market, and the Constitutional issues surrounding the cause of the pharmacists we are given trite, shop worn propaganda about “women’s health”.

Enough.

There is no Plan B “ban”. Plan B and contraceptives are ubiquitous. They are in our schools. Advertisements for them litter the pages of glossy magazines. Our politicians, even those claiming “pro-life” credentials support their widespread distribution. The combined Planned Parenthood affiliates of Washington received about $20 million dollars from the state of Washington for the purchase and distribution of contraceptives in 2007. They are there for the asking. There are two maybe three pharmacists in the whole state who do not want to sell this product.

Plan B is not a prescription drug. Plan B is sold over the counter. No trip to the doctor is necessary. No prescription is required. It was after the granting of OTC status that sales of Plan B went through the roof. Doesn't sound like a "ban" or a lack of "access" to me.

Plan B is not health care. Plan B is an overdose of the steroid hormone progesterone. The makers and promoters of Plan B claim that for every 100 women who have unprotected sex one time during the second or third week of their monthly menstrual cycle, 8 of them will get pregnant. But if those same 100 women use Plan B, only one will get pregnant. Their hook is the claim that "Plan B reduces a woman’s risk of pregnancy by 89%." What very few people have bothered to notice or point out is that in this scenario 92 women have taken a drug that they didn’t need and unnecessarily exposed them to high levels of steroids. This is basic health care for women? Are we back to selling snake oil?

A debate over the First Amendment is not a “red herring.” This battle is part of the larger crisis facing the country: the loss of the rule of law under the Constitution and the ensuing creep toward totalitarianism. That every branch of our government would collude with Planned Parenthood and big business interests of the pharmaceutical companies to coerce private citizens to violate their conscience in the pursuit of unbridled profit and power should concern every citizen. That the media is complicit only makes this battle all the more acute.

John Senior, in his book the Death of Christian Culture, said it best, “If truth is nothing but opinion, then right springs from the barrel of a gun.”

The Northwest Women’s Law Center, Seattle Times, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, Professor Don Downing of the UW School of Pharmacy, and the Washington State Board of Pharmacy have not once addressed or corrected these errors and concerns. Instead they keep repeating the words ‘access’, ‘women’ and ‘health care’ like some magical prayer.

The so-called "free press" for its part has done nothing to inform the public as to background on this drug and who is driving it in the marketplace.

Plan B was initially developed in part by an investment from Planned Parenthood of Western Washington and approved by the FDA in 1997. PPWW sold their interest in the drug to Barr Laboratories in 2004 when Barr agreed to pay a total of approximately $21 million, including approximately $9 million of assumed liabilities.

Professor Don Downing of the UW School of Pharmacy came on the payroll of Barr Laboratories to get Plan B into every pharmacy in the nation and secure distribution without a doctor’s prescription by “leveraging” boards of pharmacy. (That's what the Seattle Times means when it says, "...pharmacists have been key partners in strengthening women's access to contraception".)

Professor Downing was also one of the biggest proponents of using Plan B to “prevent abortion.” A lie based on fantasy, which has sadly become apparent as nations like the United Kingdom and states like Washington see their abortion rates increase.

Since Plan B went OTC Planned Parenthood of Western Washington’s profits from the sale of birth control have skyrocketed from $0 just three years ago to an extraordinary $7m. This is on $2m of merchandise. In other words, they bought $2m of merchandise, and turned around and sold it for $9m, pocketing $7m in pure cash.

In abortion jurisprudence and media coverage of abortion there’s something called the “abortion distortion”. All laws, commentary and public policy on abortion are twisted and distorted to accommodate abortion to the point that keeping abortion legal takes precedence over any and all other concerns. What we have now is a “contraception deception.” If the Court rules against the pharmacists next April I’m afraid the deception, and coersion, will only get worse as every law is scrutinzied to ensure it supports the contraception agenda that will ultimately take precedence over the Constitution and the health of women.

Plan B: Drug of Choice for Child Rapists

A 19-year-old Orem man was arrested Tuesday for investigation in the rape of a 13-year-old female, a first-degree felony.

In an attempt to cover up any possible evidence, "...the child said that the suspect gave her a morning-after pill".

Hat tip: RealChoice

We don't have a big enough problem with child molesters that our state Board of Pharmacy, government, and UW School of Pharamcy have to go ahead and help facilitate their crimes now.

I guess they get paid no matter who buys the drug.

Don Downing Continues to Push Plan B

This from a January 2008 Oregon NARAL email:

Emergency Contraception Access Update

NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon had our seventh pharmacist training on November 15, 2007 in Salem. More than 50 pharmacists attended the course, which was facilitated by Donald Downing, professor of pharmacy at the University of Washington. His presentation covered the details of what emergency contraception (EC) is, why EC is necessary, and how the medication works from a clinical perspective. More than 350 pharmacists have now taken part in these EC trainings since the beginning of 2007. The EC training module we created is being replicated in Washington and North Carolina. We are proud of this training program and look forward to providing more trainings in the future.

Don Downing continues his work, lining his pockets with money from the abortion industry, claiming all the while that he's helping to reduce the abortion rate.

For more on Don Downing see here.

What the PI (or Seattle Times) Won't Tell You

To the Editor --

Re: Misunderstanding of medical science basis of contraceptive denial

I was quite surprised to read Don Downing's guest editorial in the August 22 PI accusing pharmacist C.J. Kahler of being "extremely emotional. " Don Downing is the last person who should be held up as a dispassionate spokesman on Plan B and conscience rights. A more correct view of his role in this dispute would show him as a very zealous and financially motivated advocate for increased Plan B sales.

Rather than being a "long-traveled women's health advocate" Mr. Downing is actually a well travelled quasi-lobbyist and marketer for Plan B who has travelled the country attempting to, as one Barr Laboratory document put it, "leverage state boards of pharmacy." In an article published by U.S. Pharmacist magazine in December 2006 Mr. Downing reported receiving financial/material support from Barr Laboratories – the manufacturer of Plan B. The public who pay his salary at the University of Washington would like to know if Barr Labs paid for those "women's health" trips at the same time he was being paid by the University.

As for the dispute over how Plan B works and when pregnancy starts all we need to know is what science tells us -- life begins at conception. Mr. Downing's own articles and training documents, the informed consent form drafted by the Washington State Pharmacy Association, and many other pro-Plan B documents all state that Plan B may prevent the implantation of a blastocyct (embryo) in the uterus; thus ending the life of human being (though they always leave that last part off). What an individual does with that knowledge then becomes a moral issue. For reasons unknown Mr. Downing has decided not only is it ethical to end a human life in this way but that others must also be forced to so.

Lastly Mr. Downing tries to play on the public's emotions by saying that "Denying women access to Plan B when requested will lead to abortions." He claims that Plan B has been responsible for a 30% decrease in abortions in the state. Mr. Downing is trying to take credit for something that started in the early 90s. The fact is after Plan B's introduction in our state in 1997 the abortion rate actually stabilized. I wonder if the gains we made starting in the early 90s in reducing the abortion rate will soon evaporate.

When someone obfuscates their financial role in an issue, looks the other way when confronted with scientific truth, and fabricates outcomes based on promises and heartfelt desires I begin to wonder if their emotions haven't gotten the best of them.

(Needless to say this wasn't published by the PI.)

Barr Labs Says "Thank You" to Washington state and Don Downing

Barr Laboratories' Plan B Sales Double After FDA Authorization for Nonprescription Sales.

Don Downing, professor of pharmacy at the University of Washington, "grandfather of Plan B", and director of the wellness and disease management company known as PEAK Solutions, LLC, reports of receiving financial/material support from Barr Laboratories, Inc.

Come to Washington, experiment on women, and reap the profits. No questions asked.

Washington's Abortion Industry Scores Hat Trick

Not since the passage of Washington's I-120, the most radical abortion law in the United States, if not the world, has the state's abortion industry achieved so much, so quickly, and with so little effort.

In a one week sweep they managed to gain recognition of homosexual "domestic partnerships", mandatory "comprehensive" sex education, and forced participation of pharmacists into the abortion industry.

Adding insult to injury, the state's largest newspaper the Seattle Times depicted the dispute over pharmacists conscience rights as a "political fight disguised as morality" and painted the honest and caring pharmacists who don't want to be part of the state's abortion industry as a "cadre" who were "simply tools in the debate over abortion rights."

Well, right off the bat--most people in Seattle figured out a long time ago that the Seattle Times doesn't know the first think about morality.

Second, the idea that this was a "political fight" is just laughable. The state GOP and Democrat party both supported the governor's heavy-handed demands. Republican attorney general Rob McKenna's representative to the Board of Pharmacy cut off all efforts to help the pharmacists. Luke Esser, the chairman of the state GOP said he supported democrat Gregoire's demands. Calling this sad turn of events a "politcial fight" is a little like calling the rolling of tanks into Hungary in 1956 a border skirmish. The pharmacists were at the mercy of the political powers that be from the very beginning.

Third, in the course of their reporting since the issue erupted in March 2006 the Times did not publish one story to highlight the independent nature of the pharmacists involved. No organized, sustained institutional help ever came to the assistance of the pharmacists. The Washington State Pharmacy Association, the UW School of Pharmacy, the Department of Health, the Board of Pharmacy among others, all supported the abortion industry rather than their professional co-workers.

The Times did nothing to report and inform readers on the financial ties between Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the BOP, the Washington State Pharmacy Association and Barr Laboratories. They did nothing to report on the true nature of Plan B's abortifacient effect or clarify for citizens the Constitution's First Amendment right to conscience. Neither did they bother to expose the lies told by the pushers of Plan B. Now that the state's abortion rate has started to pick-up since the aggressive introduction of Plan B in 1997, the promise by Don Downing of the UW School of Pharmacy that it would reduce the abortion rate seems like a grim joke.

To be sure, the media and the Board of Pharmacy were the real tools in this fight. But the fight ain't over.

Abortion Industry Advocates Dominate Board of Pharmacy

Today the Washington State Board of Pharmacy voted unanimously to deny pharmacists and by proxy other health care workers their right to conscience guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. This rule was pushed by the pro-abortion governor Christine Gregoire, the abortion lobby and the manufacturers of Plan B, Barr Laboratories.

It should be common knowledge by now that the people of Washington have no one to represent them when it comes to their health and safety. Nor do they have anyone protecting their First Amendment rights--especially when the state's abortion industry is involved. Here's just a sampling of the ties between the abortion industry and the Board of Pharmacy.

• Professor Don Downing is nationally known for educating and training pharmacists and other healthcare providers on Plan B. In addition to teaching, he works to promote Plan B, nation-wide and is compensated for his work with Plan B. He is the director of PEAK Solutions, LLC.
• Rod Schafer is CEO of the Washington State Pharmacy Association. The Association provides courses to pharmacists and other healthcare providers on Plan B. The Association charges a fee for the courses. In addition, the CEO has traveled and the Association continues to send staff to promote Plan B.
• New Board of Pharmacy member, Rosemarie Duffy was a member of the Board of Directors for the Planned Parenthood of the Inland Empire from 1998-2000.
• New Board of Pharmacy member, Vandana Slatter is currently a NARAL Pro-Choice Washington Board Member.
• Timothy S. Fuller, consultant to the Washington Board of Pharmacy, also has his own company--Fuller and Associates--to work on issues related to Plan B. He works closely with Don Downing, Rod Schafer and population control organizations to push, Plan B, contraceptives and abortion.

The Godfather of Plan B

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. - Benito Mussolini

For those who don't know, Don Downing has been the go-to-guy on Plan B, or "grandfather of Plan B" as they affectionately call him in the abortion industry. Around here we like to call him the Godfather of Plan B. He's the person primarily responsible for setting up the "prescriptive authority agreements" here in Washington and around the country allowing anyone, anywhere, anytime, access to Plan B. (Backgrounder information on the prescriptive authority agreements and history of Plan B in Washington State can be found here.)

Mr. Downing is also the author of, Emergency Contraception: The Pharmacist's Role and, his personal pean to contraceptives and Plan B, Pharmacist Prescribing of Emergency Contraception: The Washington State Experience, both published by the American Pharmaceutical Association.

He's also one of the major players in what has become an all too common effort to use the power of the state to stifle dissent, usurp the U.S. and Washington constitutions, and potentially put people out of work who think there are more important things in life than helping the abortion industry gain yet another toe-hold in American life. All of this in an effort to further the interests of a financially powerful industry. In fairness to Mr. Downing, the politicians, at least here in Washington state, have either given silent approval, given verbal approval (Luke Esser (R)), or given enthusiastic verbal approval (Karen Kaiser (D), Fred Jarret (R), Geoff Simpson (D)).

Both the documents linked to above tipped us off to his deep ties to the abortion, population control, and pharmaceutical industries. Yes, of course, "women's health" and "preventing abortion" were used to sell, or "socially market" the idea of Plan B to the state pharmacy association, the media, professional elites, and politicians. In a touch of class, pharmacists who agreed to distribute Plan B were featured in newsletters. (See this excellent document on social marketing as it specifically pertains to Plan B.)

But we know a racket when we see one.

We really started to question Mr. Downing and the incestuous relationship between him, Barr Laboratories (manufacturer of Plan B), Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (investor, developer, and now marketer/seller of Plan B) and state boards of pharmacy when we noticed he could be found anywhere Plan B or Barr Laboratories was found. He sure seemed to have a lot of time to fly around the country. And who was paying for all those trips to Maine and Illinois anyway? Then we found out he had his own company to promote pharmacist prescribed medications.

According to this document,

Mr. Downing facilitates the implementation of patient care services provided by pharmacists in Washington State. This effort primarily involves the active integration of pharmacists into the health care team in areas of disease management and illness prevention. These efforts are performed in the public sector through the University of Washington’s School of Pharmacy and in the private sector as director of the wellness and disease management company known as PEAK Solutions, LLC.

We knew we were on to something when we further discovered that part of Barr Labs' distribution and marketing plan included, "‘leveraging’ of State Boards of Pharmacy" and that Don Downing was traveling the country to, well, what could only be described as, 'leverage' state boards of pharmacy.

Here's a sampling of just the Google cached travels of Don Downing to various conferences and boards of pharmacy; sponsored by you-know-who.

Don in Illinois in May 2006
Along with friends: Brigid Leahy, IL. Planned Parenthood
Melissa Masenbacker, Barr Labs

Don Downing in Maine
Pharmacist Training Program: Emergency Contraception In Maine
Don Downing, R.Ph. / Continuing Education: 3 CEs
Sponsor: Barr Laboratories

Don in New Mexico
Don Downing, PharmD, from Washington State and Diana Koster, MD, conducted a train-the-trainer program in December 2003. The pharmacists certified in this program are leading additional training programs in 2004, in more rural and remote areas across New Mexico. These trainings were made possible through a grant from Barr Laboratories.

Don in Oregon (This link is broken at the moment)
“Pharmacy-Based Emergency Contraception: An Action Agenda for Pharmacists”
This Program has Been Made Possible in Part by: Barr Laboratories, Inc.

When he goes to these events I don't see any mention of Peak Solutions. I only see his UW and pharmacy credentials. Is there something wrong with a university professor using his position at a public institution to lobby for a private company in order to enrich his own bank account at the expense of public health? Maybe the UW is paying for these trips, which doesn't improve the situation. Perhaps he travels long hours and attends boring BOP meetings without taking a dime for himself, which is only a slight improvement. Wherever the money trail ultimately leads, we still have a huge array of forces lined up against the conscience rights of pharmacists, the health of Washington's women, and the children who will be potentially aborted with this drug.

Maybe after this whole Plan B thing is over I imagine Merck might be looking for someone who knows a thing or two about leverage.

(Ed. note: This is the first in a series of articles covering the pharmacists conscience clause leading up to the Board of Pharmacy's March 29th meeting.)