They are feeling the heat...keep it up!!!!

I absolutely LOVED the front page of the ADN today:

Board puts off action on morning-after pill

The Alaska State Medical Board voted Friday to extend the public comment period on a regulation restricting access to the so-called morning-after pill, despite having already received a large stack of letters opposing such a change.

Asked why they re-opened the comment period, board members said only that they preferred to postpone action on the matter until their next meeting in Anchorage, where more people could attend.

Or, could it actually be that people are putting together the connection between Dr. Colleen Murphy's July 7th Compass piece in the ADN criticizing the Board for their proposed action and the "coincidental" emergency meeting, CALLED THE SAME DAY, to strip her of both the OB AND GYN licenses? (By the way, I'd be really curious to know the EXACT TIMING of when that meeting was called. The telecon was going on anyway...was it during the telecon that they decided to have an emergency meeting - giving all of them PLENTY of time to read Dr. Murphy's article that morning?)

Since 2001, the eight-member appointed board has turned over completely because of the election in 2002 of Gov. Frank Murkowski.

No one who considered the issue in 2001 is still on the panel that is proposing changing the regulations to require a physician visit before dispensing all prescription drugs except vaccines.

This is just one more of Frank's 1000 ways that he's screwed up the State since taking office.

The deadline for written public comment was July 11, but Leslie Gallant, the board's executive administrator, said she thought it would now continue through the end of September. Public comment will also be taken at the board's Anchorage meeting in October. A firm date has not yet been set.

It's rare that we get to have such a direct impact on an issue, with the added bonus that we get to confront Murkowski appointees IN PERSON and tell them how we feel on an important subject!

I will do everything I can to testify at that meeting!