Jerry Falwell lobbies for drug profits

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In an 8 July 2003 editorial in the Washington Times, Reverend Jerry Falwell, the noted TV evangelist, has attacked the Life Extension Foundation in an attempt to head off approval of a bill that would allow importation of (FDA approved) drugs from outside the US. The bill would help reduce health care costs in the US substantially, while of course cutting into drug company profits...

Both Falwell and the FDA are lobbying to keep Americans paying exorbitant prices for their prescription medicines and to keep the US drug industry from losing some of their "hard earned" advantage over cheaper and novel health care solutions. William Faloon of the Life Extension Foundation tells the whole story.

Last minute update 25 July 2003: The New York Times reports, "In a major defeat for the pharmaceutical industry, the House voted by a wide margin early this morning to approve a measure that would make it easier for Americans to import inexpensive prescription medicines from Canada and Europe."

AS WE SEE IT - Jerry Falwell Attacks Life Extension Foundation

Guest Editorial By William Faloon

July 24th, 2003

Note: This is a LONG article FULL of information important to the North American Health Freedom Movement. Take the time to read it all. You'll be glad you did. - Tim Bolen


On July 8, 2003, an editorial by the Reverend Jerry Falwell was published in the Washington Times newspaper. The purpose of this editorial was to discourage lawmakers from passing a bill that would enable Americans to purchase lower cost medications from countries that have safety standards comparable to those of the United States.

Since there is no logical basis for denying Americans access to identical FDA-approved drugs sold in other countries, the pharmaceutical industry (and Jerry Falwell) have launched a defamatory campaign against consumer proponents who support this drug importation bill. 

In his July 8, 2003 editorial, Jerry Falwell makes allegations against The Life Extension Foundation that are blatantly false and misleading. Reverend Falwell’s vicious comments reveal just how desperate the drug cartel is to protect their monopoly on sales of over-priced pharmaceuticals to Americans. 

For those who don’t remember, Jerry Falwell is the TV evangelist who set up an organization called “The Moral Majority”. One purpose of this organization was to induce Congress to enact laws that would impose the “moral” standards of Jerry Falwell on the entire U.S. population. This group concentrated a lot of pressure on Congress before it was disbanded in 1989. 

One of Jerry Falwell’s most famous attacks was on a children’s TV show called “Telletubies”. In an article published in his own National Liberty Journal, Falwell announced that one of the Telletubie puppets was exhibiting homosexual behavior and that this was promoting a “gay role model”. At the time, I had young children who watched Telletubies, and my wife had to go to great length to show me which of the puppets was exhibiting this alleged homosexual behavior. Upon being enlightened to the purported gay puppet, I became convinced that Jerry Falwell should move to Iran where his imaginative abilities might actually be appreciated. Not that the Iranian people could tolerate him, but perhaps the hard-line theocratic government of Iran might have used his edicts to create even more draconian laws against individual liberty.

Falwell has built a reputation out of making ridiculously offensive statements. For instance, two days after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center, Falwell stated:

"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say: you helped this happen."

After withstanding a couple of days of tremendous public denunciations, Falwell was ultimately forced to issue a retraction as follows:

"I would never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize." 

Riots, Condemnation, Deaths, and Apology Follow Falwell's Anti-Islamic Comments Jerry Falwell is famous for making ignorant and offensive pronouncements that are often followed by retractions and halfhearted apologies.

In an October 6, 2002 interview on CBS News 60 Minutes, Falwell said, "I think Muhammad was a terrorist. I read enough of the history of his life written by both Muslims and - non-Muslims, (to know) that he was a -- a violent man, a man of war." The fallout from his remarks on 60 Minutes was severe. At least five people were killed and nearly 50 people injured Friday when Hindu-Muslim rioting broke out at a protest in Sholapur, 225 miles south of Bombay. 

Muslim clerics in Lebanon and Iran reacted with rage to Falwell's remarks, and encouraged acts as violence in retaliation. Hundreds of Muslim protesters gathered twice outside the CBS Broadcast Center in New York - on Oct. 8 and Oct. 13 - to demand an apology from the media.

The Washington Post reported that Falwell's remarks might have contributed to Islamic parties winning more than 50 seats in the Pakistani parliament. An Islamic expert at American University told the paper, "All the predictions were that the mullahs would not get more than their usual four or five seats. Suddenly you get these [Falwell] statements on the front pages. People are outraged. Ordinary Pakistanis say, 'A vote for the religious parties is a vote against the Americans.' The article also said that the comments might have hurt U.S. chances of finding support from Islamic countries for its war on terrorism. 

In the face of protests around the world, the Rev. Jerry Falwell has issued an official apology for comments he made about the prophet Muhammad during the interview on the CBS news program 60 Minutes.  In his statement over the weekend, Falwell said, "I sincerely apologize that certain statements of mine made during an interview for CBS's 60 Minutes were hurtful to the feelings of many Muslims. I intended no disrespect to any sincere, law-abiding Muslim." 


What Jerry Falwell Said About Life Extension

We have re-printed Jerry Falwell’s entire defamatory editorial at the end of this article. I want focus here specifically on the baseless and disparaging allegations that Reverend Falwell made against Life Extension.

Jerry first seeks to discredit the drug importation bill by attacking groups that support it. As a prelude to his attack on Life Extension, Falwell states:

“What's more, ratcheting open the walls that protect our market for medicines means that those who want to import bizarre and unethical medications will have that much more opportunity to do so. Consider those supporting drug importation off Capitol Hill, and that perverse motivation becomes clear.”

The drug importation bill only permits Americans to obtain identical FDA-approved prescription drugs. Jerry Falwell is using bogus scare tactics to imply that the American marketplace will be flooded with “bizarre and unethical medications” by people with “perverse motivations”. Falwell’s assertion is a monstrous distortion of what this bill will permit, but when the enormous profits of the drug industry are threatened, truth goes out the door. 

Reverend Falwell then attacks Life Extension specifically by stating:

“For instance, drug importation advocates regularly cite research from the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in their arguments. But the so-called Life Extension Foundation (LEF), ironically, is a rabidly anti-life organization. It has cited RU-486 as an "anti-aging" medication that once just missed its top 10 list of life-extending drugs.”

The Reverend Falwell apparently has problems getting his facts straight. He is confusing The Life Extension Foundation (LEF) of Florida with another organization called the Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Arizona. LEF and ALCOR are separate organizations involved in different activities, but when it comes to a political smear campaign, simple facts are apparently irrelevant to the Reverend. 

As I will describe in the October 2003 issue of Life Extension magazine, RU-486 has demonstrated significant anti-aging and anti-cancer properties. Since it is also used to induce abortions, however, it has become highly politicized and cancer patients cannot easily get it. A few gynecologists prescribe and dispense RU-486, but most of American doctors prescribe a morning after pill called Preven¨ that is sold at American pharmacies. RU-486 is not freely sold anywhere that we could find. In most European countries, patients must consume RU-486 in front of their doctors, as it is not stocked in pharmacies. The bill that would enable Americans to import lower cost FDA-approved prescription drugs would not provide greater access to RU-486 than already exists, but again, facts are of no concern to the self-righteous Falwell. 

Reverend Falwell then states:

“LEF has demonstrated its disregard for human life not only by advocating cloning but embryonic stem cell research to reverse the signs of aging. Those who support taking the lives of unborn children to support the selfish desire to live a longer and fuller life are not the allies we hope to see advocating public policy changes for America.”

Life Extension has long been a proponent of stem cell research. Stem cell therapies used today, however, do not involve “taking the lives of unborn children”. Scientists are harvesting patient’s own stem cells, growing them in the laboratory, and then injecting the stem cells into the specific organ affected by a disease process. (see sidebar) None of this, of course, has anything to do with the right of Americans to import lower cost medications. Falwell is attacking stem cell research in order to divert Congress’s attention from the real issue of passing this bill that would greatly reduce the prices of prescription medications. 

In order to sidetrack members of C