Health Freedom

Legislative Update: Get Involved to Protect Your Health Freedom!

Every day, countless medical journal articles are published providing scientific evidence about the efficacy of various herbs, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibit nutritional supplement manufacturers and retailers from using these scientific studies to make claims. Even if a nutritional supplement manufacturer/retailer were to accurately describe a study published in a medical journal, the FDA or FTC could consider the reporting of that study to be a claim, impose huge fines on the company just because it told the truth, and ultimately put the company out of business.

In this practice of depriving consumers of truthful information, the FDA and the FTC now regularly violate the First Amendment and sacrifice our health freedom. One example: from 1990 to 1995, the FDA censored the claim that folic acid reduces the risk of neural tube birth defects despite the federal Public Health Service's statement to all physicians that women of childbearing age should consume 400 mcg of folic acid per day before they become pregnant to reduce the risk of neural tube defects by 40 percent or more. An estimated 2,400 neural tube birth defects (and more neural tube birth defect abortions) could have been averted if FDA had allowed the claim into the market. Only after congressional pressure and litigation did FDA finally allow a claim. Since then, the number of neural tube birth defects has dropped to approximately 1,700 per year.

To help end this FDA/FTC censorship, the Health Freedom Protection Act (H.R. 2117) has been introduced in Congress. If passed, H.R. 2117 will allow truthful claims to enter the market. We urge you to contact your congressional representatives and help them understand the importance of voting in favor of the Health Freedom Protection Act (H.R. 2117). By doing so, you will preserve first amendment rights while gaining easier access to truthful scientific information.

Contact a member of the House of Representatives.

Contact a member of the Senate.