The Washington Post reports:

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves — and to be treated by the health care system — as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

The guidelines have the pro-abortion crowd all atwitter with cries of “I am not an incubator!” — and the anti-abortion crowd ascribing a pro-birth control agenda.

My take: Nothing overtly partisan at work, here. Just your typical overly-cautious, overly-paternalistic public health crowd dipping into post-reductio territory.

(Via)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 18th, 2006 at 5:15 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.