Health Freedom Action

Health Freedom Score Card

Health Freedom America to

Presidential Candidates:

"Which Side Are You On?"

The Natural Solutions Foundation believes that Americans have a right to know where the 2008 Presidential hopefuls stand on vitally important Health Freedom questions. We urge every voter in America to ask those tough questions - and demand clear answers.

So far, only one Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, has a Health Freedom plank in his platform. Why? On the one hand, the rights of Americans to make natural health choices for themselves and their families is under almost continual assault from the FDA, State Medical Boards, legislation, and commercially funded "poison press" media. On the other hand, Americans seek out, to the tune of billions of dollars annually, natural care and natural cures. Will the next President of the United States work for those freedoms or against them?

Ask Tough Questions:

Demand Straight Answers

Check both "email" and "fax" to assure efficient delivery of you message. Send the Health Freedom questions to the candidates seeking the high office of President of the United States in 2008. Their answers to the questions contained in it will have a direct impact on your life - or death.

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Because of the additional costs involved in faxing, collating and disseminating candidate responses to these questions, we ask for your generous tax deductible donation (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation Health Freedom campaign.

Your recurring donation will assist the Natural Solutions Foundation in its monthly financial planning.

Thank you for your active support in the Health Freedom campaign. Many voices make us audible.

TECHNICAL NOTE: PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU CHECK BOTH THE "SEND EMAIL" AND "SEND FAX" BOXES BENEATH YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS

Yours in health and freedom,

Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD

Medical Director

Natural Solutions Foundation

www.HealthFreedomUSA.org

>>Learn More

November 21, 2009

Subject:

Presidential Health Freedom Score Card

Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org

As a voting American I am deeply concerned by several converging trends which are threatening my ability to make natural health choices if I want to.  These issues are of such importance that I am writing to you to provide succinct, clear answers to the questions listed below in order to help me decide where to put my support and my donations in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

My life, my health and my freedom are all directly impacted by these issues and your stand on them.  Please provide your answers to the Natural Solutions Foundation, dr.laibow@globalhealthfreedom.org.  Your answers will be disseminated nationally by the Natural Solutions Foundation, a not-for-profit 501 c 3 grassroots Health Freedom organization which is keeping score on these developments and disseminating information widely so voters can be well-informed about the Health Freedom stance of each Presidential candidate.

Background: Industrialization and contamination of the American food supply, regulatory and legislative assaults on natural health options and globalization increasingly impact health care choices and limit the freedom of Americans to access the foods, supplements and natural health strategies and practices we desire.

Health freedom advocates look with alarm at national and international decisions made by unelected bureaucrats which undermine both case law and Congressional mandates intended to protect our freedoms. Recent developments, such as the FDA’s draft CAM and health Claim “guidance” documents and that agency’s policy of HARMonizing our freedoms with international restrictions, through such Executive Department initiatives, unapproved by Congress, as the North American Union and the agreement entered into at the beginning of May, 2007, to HARMonize US regulations with those of the EU in 40 areas, as well as the role of industry-driven decisions supported by those unelected bureaucrats in Codex and subsequent HARMonization with those decisions (which include food and health policy), are particularly troubling to us.

Health Freedom Questions: The Natural Solutions Foundation and I would appreciate knowing how you, as a candidate for President of the United States, stand on each of these issues. Please respond to the following “litmus test” questions:

1.  The FDA current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) Final Rule
a. Do you support the FDA cGMP Final Rule for dietary supplements, issued on June 22, 2007, requiring the batch testing of all food dietary supplements although 
  - Supplements have an enviable safety record
  - The FDA's own economic analysis of the impact of the cGMP shows that it will drive a significant number of small and medium size manufacturers out of business?

2. The FDA CAM Regulation draft Guideline
a. Are you aware of the “Complementary and Alternative Medicine Regulation” draft guidance issued by the FDA on December 26, 2006? 
b. Do you support its creation of a new category, “CAM Product” that would allow FDA to regulate foods, supplements and alternative modalities as “medicine” without Congressional approval in violation of US law?

3. The FDA draft Guidance on Health Claim substantiation
a. Are your aware of the FDA draft guidance on Health Claim substantiation, issued this summer, which mandates an unreasonably high “Significant Scientific Agreement” standard instead of the FTC “competent and reliable scientific evidence", as proposed in HR 2117, The Health Freedom Protection Act? 
b. Do you support HR2117?

4. Protection of Dietary Supplements
Do you support continuing strong protection for Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) products?

5. Bio-Identical Hormones
Do you support the right of men and women to use supplemental Bio-identical Hormones such as DHEA and progesterone to support normal function during change of life and premature aging in preference to less effective, dangerous and more expensive prescription drugs if they prefer bio-identical hormones?

6. Compounding Pharmacies
Do you support the right of Compounding Pharmacists and licensed physicians to continue to provide compounded medications, on a doctor’s prescription, for special needs and choices of individuals, communicating their availability to the public, as permitted by the landmark Supreme Court case of Thompson vs. Western States Medical Centers?

7. Trilateral Cooperation Charter/North American Union/Security and Prosperity Partnership
a. Do you support the “North American Union” and its companion "Security and Prosperity Partnership" which were created without Congressional debate and approval?
b. Do you support FDA’s policy of “harmonization” of regulations with those of Mexico and Canada through the North American Union and the already-operating Trilateral Cooperation Charter which fuses the national health departments of all three countries into a single entity without Congressional oversight or authorization of any entity?
c. Do you support such executive agreements without Congressional debate and approval?
d. If elected, do you pledge to use the power of the Executive Branch of Government to overturn or reverse the North American Union, Security and Prosperity Partnership and the Trilateral Cooperation Charter?

8. HARMonization of FDA regulations with international and foreign agencies and entities
a. Do you support FDA’s policy of “harmonization” of regulations with those of the European Union, under executive agreement?
b. Do you support FDA’s policy of “HARMonization” of regulations with the standards and guidelines of the Codex Alimentarius when those texts are created through the US efforts on behalf of industrialized food supply constituents and degrade and render toxic the US and global food supplies?
c. If elected, what steps do you pledge to take to end these HARMonization activities of the FDA, USDA, FTC and EPA?

10 Anti-HARMonization Statute
Do you support strict enforcement of the Anti-Harmonization Statute, 19 USC 3512, which prohibits such harmonization with respect to the US food supply and those foods known as Dietary Supplements?

11. FDA HARMonization with international standards
a. Are you aware and do you support the FDA's announced policy of "harmonization" with International Standards, even where those standards are not finalized: "In a notice published in the Federal Register of October 11, 1995 (60 FR 53078), FDA articulated its policy regarding the development and use of standards with respect to the harmonization of various national and international regulatory requirements and guidelines” - http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr970707.html ?
b. If elected, what steps do you pledge to take to reign in such HARMonization and return the US to regulatory sovereignty?

12 World Trade Organization and similar international bodies
a. Do you support harmonizing America's legal structure and freedoms to international restrictions through participation in bodies such as the World Trade Organization?  
b. Do you support withdrawing from the World Trade Organization?  
c. Do you support withdrawing from the United Nations?

13. Divesting the FDA of food regulatory authority
a. Since nutrient and natural health products are regulated as Food in accordance with US law, do you support a division of the FDA into two separate agencies, one focusing on Foods (including dietary supplements and all natural or non-pharmaceutical health products) and the other finally focusing on protecting the safety of the public with regard to dangerous drugs and invasive medical devices?
b. Do you support the FDA's approval of genetically modified foods in the absence of any safety testing, requiring only a patent before the genetically modified food can be admixed with the food supply?
c. Do you support the FDA's position that since the FDA has declared genetically modified foods equivalent to natural ones in the absence of any testing to demonstrate that to be the case and its stated understanding that the public would reject genetically modified foods if they knew what they were buying and eating, that it would be false and misleading if genetically modified foods were identified as such so their labeling is prohibited?

14.Compulsory medical treatment
a. Do you support the use of the State's powers to compel compulsory mental health or other screening, forced drugging or other medical treatment under any circumstances?  
b. Do you support removing children from parental custody when parents refuse to use medication for alleged "mental health problems" in their children? 
c. Do you support removing children from parental custody when parents refuse to use medication for the allopathic (pharmaceutical) treatment of life threatening diseases such as cancer?
d. Do you support the forced use of pharmaceutical or other medical treatment in adults under any circumstances?
e. Do you support the right of parents or adult persons to chose natural medical treatments over pharmaceutical ones if they desire?

15. Mandatory screening
a. Do you support  mandatory mental health or other health screening? 
b. Do you support  the use of Federal funds for such screening?  
c. Do you support  the use of Federal funds to pay for forced drugging of children or adults?

16. Natural Health Options
a. Do you support the use of Federal funds for natural medical and health therapy services and treatments on a par with pharmaceutical and other allopathic treatments, at the discretion of the patient?

17. Vaccination
a. Do you oppose mandatory vaccination under all circumstances? 
b. Do you support continuing the pharmaceutical industry’s exemption from legal responsibility for injuries caused by vaccinations? 
c. Do you support continuing the pharmaceutical industry's exemption from legal responsibility for injuries caused by drugs approved for any indication?

18. Reproductive Autonomy
a. Do you support a woman's right to control her reproductive life without interference from the Federal government?
b. If elected, what will you pledge to do to protect the reproductive autonomy of women?

19. Health Freedom Plank
How soon can the American public expect a formal Health Freedom Plank in your campaign platform?

Thank you for your attention to these questions. Please forward your answers to dr.laibow@globalhealthfreedom.org so that the Natural Solutions Foundation can disseminate your answers and inform the American public about your stand on the vitally important questions which determine Health Freedom in the United States.

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