HHS mandate re free birth control

[Guest guest]

As a result of a comment by Steve Koob on this topic a short time ago, I had a meeting at noon today with Congressman Steve Chabot who represents my district. He promised to discuss the HHS mandate on free birth control with and other members of the Pro-Life Caucus. I left with him a few pages from Kahlenborn's book on the connection between OCPs and breast cancer -- the introduction and pages 34 and 36 where he cites increased risks of 72 percent and 40 percent. I also left a printout of Kahlenborn's article in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings in October 2006. Lastly, I left a list of six reasons why the HHS mandate should be defeated. I had previously given his staff the Big Pharma article by Bob Laird

By way of preparation, this past Monday night I attended a Town Hall meeting hosted by Mr. Chabot. It was packed, SRO. In the open mike time, I raised the HHS issue and was booed. (So were the other "conservative-type" speakers.) When I mentioned a couple statistics, there were no more boos. Wednesday morning a fellow golfer told me that I was on the 10:00 evening news the night before. Apparently WXIX had run a clip of my statement and then introduced a woman who said there was no evidence to support what I said. I've been trying to talk with the news director, but so far, no luck.

Suggestion: If you meet with your Representative or even send him some materials, do more or less what I did. That is, Mr. Chabot was grateful that I had given him some concise facts and papers. I showed him the Kahlenborn book but did not give it to him. (He talked about getting one from the Library of Congress. I don't see how he will ever find the time to read it.)

So, thanks, Steve. You gently goaded me to get off my butt.

Kippley