"Birth control patches linked to women's deaths: About a dozen women died last year from blood clots believed to be related to the contraceptive."

The Associated Press finally catches up to and gives ink to reality--at least nine months later. Three cheers to Martha Mendoza of The Associated Press.

I even saw this on my local 6 o'clock news, for Pete's sake, and I heard a plug last night that it was being covered on one of those Good Morning America/Today/Whichever shows this morning.

What took them all so long? The New York Post exposed the FDA's prior (and hidden) knowledge of all this back on Sept. 19, 2004, and we aired this--and the long list of contraindications--on October 1, 2004.

Go read it, folks, if you haven't already. It's worth it, for your safety or that of one you love.

This is the same product that "TIME magazine call[ed] one of the 'Coolest Inventions of 2002.'" This quote used to be on the website "Epigee Women's Health" at this page, but it's gone from that site now.

That quote still can be found here on this page, though.

And here's the actual, original TIME MAGAZINE write-up itself.

(Another reason why I hate TIME MAGAZINE.)

It's important to be exact on the facts though: last September 2004, "FDA records, obtained by The Post under the Freedom of Information law, show that 17 patch users, ages 17 to 30, suffered fatal heart attacks, blood clots…"

The FDA sure basked in the glow of their approval of this product in 2001, though. After testing it on only 3,319 women.

I really wish our readers who are pro-choice and pro-birth control would see from this kind of story that we aren't just blowing smoke on this blog when we come out with facts and evidence about how birth control and abortion hurt us women. As Dave Barry used to say, "I am not just making this up."

This also should raise all our red flags about how the FDA has lost (compromised?) its ability to be the sensible, capable watchdogs of our health, and therefore, our trust in its decisions.