The Health Freedom Protection Act
The Food and Drug Administration is in the business of censoring
health information. You may recall how the FDA prohibited the claim that
folic acid reduces the risk of neural tube defects for four years while the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended to every woman of
childbearing age taking that supplement to reduce neural tube defects
(NTDs). FDA thereby contributed to an estimated 10,000 preventable NTDs.
FDA continues this same kind of censorship despite 4 court orders condemning
the practice as a violation of the First Amendment.
There is a wealth of scientific evidence that glucosamine and
chondroitin sulfate are effective in the treatment of osteoarthritis; that
omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of sudden death heart attack; and
that calcium may reduce the risk of bone fractures. Yet, the FDA prohibits
each of those claims.
In the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act this Congress
compelled FDA to let the public have access to scientific articles and
publications on the role of nutrients in disease. FDA has defeated that
purpose of DSHEA by deeming every article of that kind evidence of a
company's intent to sell a drug. Rather than give the public access to
health information, FDA has ensured that the public is deprived of it.
Indeed, FDA prohibits every claim that a nutrient treats a
disease whether true or not. The "Health Freedom Protection Act" would end
that practice of censorship. It would codify the First Amendment standard
adopted by the federal Courts but that FDA refuses to apply. It would open
the marketplace to all manner of truthful health information. It would make
the consumer King and the government the consumer's servant, as it should
be.
The Health Freedom Protection Act not only prevents FDA from
denying the public access to health information, it arrests actions by the
FTC that are destroying businesses all across the United States.
Under the First Amendment, the government must prove an
advertising statement false before it may act against that statement. Under
FTC's regime, no company can advertise a health benefit for a product unless
the company has proof to a near certain degree that the statement is true.
Ladies and gentlemen virtually nothing in science is provable to a near
certain degree. Science is evolutionary and depends on probabilities. To
prevent FTC from blocking innovation and evolution in the marketplace, we
have got to limit its role to acting against speech it can prove is false
and not prohibiting all speech unless the speaker can prove it true to a
near certain degree. This legislation will do that. It will return the
burden of proof to the place the First Amendment demands: against action by
the federal government unless the government possesses proof of falsity. It
also makes FTC warn parties that their advertising is false rather than drag
them into long costly and economically destructive investigations and
hearings. We have got to protect the livelihood of innocent American
workers. Its high time the FTC came to respect their right to earn a
living, and all of our rights to free speech. This bill achieves that
objective.
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