Political Quotes

“I rise today to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health, which was established on September 10, 1990, to end gender bias in medical research. It is hard to believe that 25 years ago, women were not included in protocols at the NIH. Faux science said that our reproductive systems got in the way or that we had ``raging hormones.'' I was here 25 years ago, as a young Senator representing the great State of Maryland. I remember this big ``landmark'' study coming out. It showed that aspirin could help prevent heart attacks and save lives. Everyone was so excited. A relatively cheap and widely available medication that could improve cardiovascular health--this was a huge discovery. But then we looked closer at the study, and what did we find? We found that the study tested the effects of aspirin on more than 22,000 men, but zero women. Zero women. This big, landmark study enrolled only men. How could that be? So we took a closer look, and we found that this study--and the exclusion of women from clinical trials--was not an aberration. We found that prior to 1989 clinical trials of new drugs were routinely conducted predominantly on men, even though women consume approximately 80 percent of pharmaceuticals in the United States and make up half the population. To add fuel to the fire, a 1992 report by the U.S.…”