From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is touting a federal bill that would allow prescription drugs to be imported from Canada as a way to lower costs and drive competition.
The Madison Dem says the bipartisan bill would also improve access to drugs for consumers as major drugmakers are “ripping off Americans.” She also said too many Wisconsin families are struggling to afford needed prescription medications.
“I am proud to work with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to help lower costs for Wisconsinites and ensure they can get the medications they need at a price they can afford,” she said in a statement.
The bill text says it would allow for the “personal importation of safe and affordable drugs” from approved Canadian pharmacies. The legislation would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to create new regulations around such imports, with restrictions that the drugs be for personal use, not resale, and limited to a 90-day supply.
Under the bill, the drugs would still need to be prescribed by a licensed U.S. doctor and have the same “active ingredient or ingredients, route of administration, dosage form, and strength” as already approved drugs. The bill also would restrict the type of drug being imported to exclude controlled substances, drugs inhaled during surgery and intravenously injected drugs, among others.
If signed into law, the FDA website would post a list of approved Canadian pharmacies from which prescription drugs could be imported. Eligible pharmacies would need to have existed for at least five years and couldn’t exist only to participate in this drug imports program, the bill text shows.
See more details here and find the release below.
— GOP state Rep. Amanda Nedweski knocked Dem Gov. Tony Evers for proposing in his budget using language such as “parent who gave birth” and “inseminated person” instead of “mother.”
The lawmaker called it “an outright attack on the very essence of motherhood.”
A spokesperson for the guv said Republicans are “clearly misunderstanding and misrepresenting changes that are simply about making sure there’s legal clarity and certainty in Wisconsin state law for families, including folks and families who use IVF.”
Evers included the same provisions in his 2023-25 budget as part of an effort to change state statutes to gender-neutral language. GOP lawmakers stripped those changes out of the budget two years ago.
For example, both the guv’s 2023-25 budget and the latest proposal include proposals to change terms in state law dealing with artificial insemination. The provisions proposed instead of “husband,” using “spouse;” instead of “woman,” using “person inseminated;” and instead of “father,” using “parent.”
“It is unconscionable that the Governor has the audacity to take the most beautiful, life-giving act a woman can perform—bringing children into this world—and turn it into nothing more than gender-neutral, virtue-signaling jargon to appease his far-left base,” Nedweski said.
The Legislative Reference Bureau explanation of the proposed changes notes that under current law, if a woman is artificially inseminated with semen donated by a man who isn’t her husband, and the husband consents in writing to the procedure, he is the natural father of any child conceived.
Under the proposed change, one spouse would be able to consent to the artificial insemination of his or her spouse and be the natural parent of the child conceived.
“These changes have nothing to do with what parents call themselves or what kids call their parents but are about protecting families and eliminating legal problems for parents using IVF,” Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said.
See more at WisPolitics.
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