Just out., August 21, 1998, Page 12, Image 12

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JUST OUT OF T HI S W O R L D
A doption B an P assed
House approves D.C appropriations bill with an amendment
to prevent adoption by unmarried couples by Bob Roehr
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O n July 30, openly gay House member Jim
uring its last day of business before
summer recess, the U .S. House of Kolbe, a Republican from Arizona, spoke mov­
ingly about a same-sex couple who had adopted
Representatives voted 227-192 to
children
from Russia. The same day, committee
forbid unmarried couples from
adopting children in the District Chair Robert Livingston, a Louisiana Repub­
lican, denied a request for a roll-call vote on the
of Columbia. Some viewed the vote, which
amendment as Traditional Values Coalition lob­
occurred Aug. 7, as anti-gay.
byist Andrea Sheldon glared from the sidelines.
“It might give some gay rights activist a
Coalition officials subsequently issued a press
warm feeling to see gay couples treated just as if
release in which Sheldon
they were married,” said prin­
dubbed
Livingston
“a
cipal sponsor Rep. Steve
fraud...more concerned with
Largent, a Republican from
currying political favors with
Oklahoma, “but these are
the left than he is about doing
kids.... It is simply wrong to
what is right.”
turn them into trophies from
Still, proponents of the
the culture war, to exploit
adoption ban proposal man­
them in order to make some
aged to get the amendment to
political point.”
the House floor for a recorded
Rep. C h et Edwards, a
vote of all members, and they
Texas Democrat, blasted the
managed to pull together a sig­
measure, saying it would
nificant majority.
“allow a philandering married
Despite the amendment’s
husband who abuses his wife
—
Rep. H eather Wilson
passage, the vote may be more
on a regular basis to be able to
symbolic
than
practical.
The Senate Appropri­
legally adopt a child,” but would prevent “two
nuns who felt G od’s calling from adopting a dis­ ations Com m ittee previously passed the
District’s budget bill without the amendment.
abled, blind child from Romania.”
Traditional Values Coalition leaders have
The adoption proposal was an amendment
not pressed for amendments on the floor of the
to a D.C. appropriations bill.
Senate in the past, but they still have that
New Mexico Republican Heather Wilson
option.
said, “This am endment...points out why we
President Bill Clinton has indicated his dis­
should not deal with these kinds of complex
pleasure with the amendment as an infringe­
issues in an appropriations bill.” She urged for
ment on local home ruleHe has not, however,
local autonomy in making decisions “on a case-
publicly pledged to veto the adoption provision.
by-case basis in the best interest of each and
If the measure does eventually take effect, it
every child.”
applies only to unmarried couples. Individual
Local opponents had worked closely with
lesbians and gay men in D.C. would be able to
Appropriations Committee members to block
adopt children.
such amendments earlier in the legislative
process, and initially they succeeded.
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P ro blem s C
he veil of secrecy surrounding problems
with the protease inhibitor ritonavir
(trade name Norvir) continues to be upheld by
the drug’s manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories.
The company announced July 27 it had
“encountered an undesired formation of
Norvir crystalline structure that affects how
the capsule form of Norvir dissolves.”
Arthur Higgins, senior vice president for
pharmaceutical opperations, added that the
capsules will not be produced until the prob­
lem is resolved. Abbott Laboratories expects
supplies of capsules will have started running
out at pharmacies by the middle of August.
Crystallization also occurs in the liquid
form of the product, but keeping the liquid
drug at room temperature and shaking the bot­
tle redissolves the crystals.
Som e A ID S advocates, however, fear
switching to the liquid form of ritonavir will
adversely impact compliance. The first reason
is that a bottle of liquid is more difficult to
carry than a pill, so dosing might not occur on
the recommended schedule. Secondly, even
the company admits the product’s taste is less
than pleasant. Indeed, one consumer
described it as "tasting like carburetor fluid.”
(Another prefers the liquid over the capsule,
however, because the latter “explodes in your
stomach.” )
Kiyoshi Kuromiya, a Philadelphia treat­
ment advocate who has closely followed the
T
HERS
it o n a v ir
o n t in u e
federal Food and Drug Adm inistration’s
approval process of all four protease drugs, says
Abbott Laboratories has always been extreme­
ly secretive about its product.
He charges: “[Abbott] got it through with
full licensure with an absolute minimum of
data on anything.... Merck [maker of
Crixivan] was much better on being open
about it.”
I
n other news, an unexpected number of pre­
mature births led the National Institutes of
Health to suspend enrollment July 22 of preg­
nant women in protease inhibitor trials.
The initial data came from a Swiss birth
registry and was presented at the recent inter­
national A ID S conference in Geneva. The
data showed a third of the women who were
on combination therapy— which in some
cases included protease inhibitors— giving
birth prematurely.
A survey of the Pediatric A ID S Clinical
Trials Group showed three of five births to be
premature. That trial used Norvir as the pro­
tease inhibitor.
Other trials, however, did not show the
same pattern. In all cases, the numbers were
small. The Swiss data was based on 30 preg­
nancies, while the United States safety trials
each had 10 or fewer gravid patients.
■
Reported by
B ob R oehr