TOW #17 – Article: “No, The CDC Did Not Tell Women To Stop Drinking”

 

The Huffington Post

"No, The CDC Did Not Tell Women to Stop Drinking. It could use some help on press releases, though."

Erin Schumaker

February 4, 2016

Recently, the media has been outraged by the CDC’s report that warned women not trying to get pregnant of the dangers of alcohol exposure to unborn babies.  Individuals across America responded with an equally strong and opposite reaction to the CDC’s overbearing mandate for all adult women who were not pregnant to abstain from alcohol, but Erin Schumaker uses direct sources from the CDC in order to share a different perspective in The Huffington Post that righteously qualifies with CDC critics.

Schumaker first reiterates the statistics found in the CDC’s original report to clarify the CDC’s intended audience, regarding its mandate for abstaining from alcohol.  She identifies that “more than 3.3 million women” (para. 1) are at risk for the devastating effects of an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, but even more significant are the “three out of four women” (para. 2), who continued drinking alcohol while they were attempting to get pregnant.  Schumaker counters that if a government agency had targeted all women not on birth control, then the news media would be justified in expressing outrage; however, the CDC recognized a preventable health problem stemming from lack of awareness in 75% of women, and sought to lower the number of alcohol-exposed pregnancies in the United States.

In addition, Schumaker quotes CDC’s lead scientists and directors for an inside look at the agency’s true intentions.  As part of the prevention team, Lela McKnight-Eily’s testimony reveals the agency’s belief in methods of prevention, rather than what critics accuse the CDC of having, “paternalistic undertones” (para. 17).  Schumaker also includes an outside perspective from an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, Amy Bryant, for insight into the other side of the conflict.  Providing background information on the not-entirely understood issue of drinking during pregnancy, Bryant reasons that the CDC may be backed into a corner, where it can either urge women towards or away from alcohol, so obviously the CDC chose the latter. 

Each of Schumaker’s evidence supports the conclusion that the CDC’s mandate is unrealistic and excessive, but was ordered with the best intentions, and not as the media has made it out to be, a tactic to limit of restrict women.