all women are potential mothers

The FDA has issued new guidlines stating that all women should be treated as pre-pregnant.

I'm kind of outraged about this. It's as if we're being told that women's entire reason for being is their incubator capacity. Geezums.

Reasoning with myself doesn't help much, either. I try to tell myself that perhaps they have everyone's best interest at heart: better health care is better health care, right? These guidelines essentially stipulate that women should be taking multivitamins, getting the best health care, etc., because most pregnancies are unplanned, and both the mother and the baby have the best chance of health if those pre-pregnancy moments are good.

On the other hand, the FDA also states that women should not smoke or drink alcohol, period, because they MIGHT become pregnant. This starts an extraordinarily dangerous trend. I've long been awaiting the day when cigarette use during pregnancy was just plain made illegal--that, I think, is probably coming. And that legislation will be followed by similar legislation. Alcohol for pregnant women will be illegal, not just inadvised. But why stop there? Why not ban alcohol, cigarettes, and--heck, why not--caffeine for all women, period? Because they might unwittingly become pregnant, and everyone knows these things are bad for the fetus? Will women have to prove they're incapable of having children in order to do the things that are perfectly legal for everyone else?

It just gives me the creeps.

I'm also wondering what the FDA is doing, issuing guidelines like this. The purpose of the FDA is to monitor and regulate drugs. They aren't supposed to issue health advisories--the AMA does that. It seems to me that this government organization is way overextending its powers.