National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day

NATIONAL FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDERS AWARENESS DAY

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The legislative clerk read as follows:

A resolution (S. Res. 141) designating September 9, 2005, as ``National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day.''

There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the resolution.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. On Wednesday, May 18, parents of children afflicted with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and their advocates will travel to our Nation's Capital for the Second Annual FASD Hill Day. FASD Hill Day is sponsored by the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and organizations that support those who care for FASD children in our States and communities.

Nobody knows better than a parent of a child afflicted with FASD how challenging it is to raise a child who was exposed to alcohol before birth. Nobody knows better the physical, mental, behavioral and learning disabilities that can have lifelong implications. I would urge my colleagues to open their offices to the parents and advocates who participate in FASD Hill Day because they have a very important story to tell. Their stories will move you.

At the conclusion of FASD Hill Day, the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome will host its annual Leadership Awards Benefit Reception. All of the parents and advocates are invited to participate. I am pleased to inform my colleagues that the distinguished Senator from Wyoming, Mr. ENZI, and our distinguished colleague from Illinois, Mr. DURBIN, will receive the 2005 Leadership Award at the benefit reception. As a Senator who represents a State with one of the highest incidence rates of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, I appreciate the leadership of Senator DURBIN and Senator ENZI, and the support of all of our colleagues, in the crusade to eradicate fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

The term fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, or FASD, was coined by experts as an umbrella term to describe the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. It refers to conditions such as fetal alcohol syndrome, fetal alcohol effects, alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder and alcohol-related birth defects.

The only cause of FASD is alcohol use during pregnancy. When a pregnant woman drinks, the alcohol crosses the placenta into the fetal blood system. Thus, alcohol reaches the fetus, its developing tissues and organs. This is how brain damage occurs, which in turn can lead to mental retardation, social and emotional problems, learning disabilities and other problems. In fact, FASD is the leading cause of mental retardation in all of western civilization, including the United States.

Since the only cause of FASD is prenatal alcohol consumption it follows that by abstaining from the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy a woman can completely foreclose the possibility that her baby will be born with one or another of the conditions that are regarded fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Every day of the year we must remind women that no amount of alcohol consumed during pregnancy is safe for their baby. No alcohol during pregnancy is safe. None at all.

To dramatize this point, a group of parents who were raising children afflicted with fetal alcohol came together on the Internet and wondered in cyberspace, ``What if a world full of FAS and FAE parents all got together on the 9th hour of the 9th day of the 9th month of the year and asked the world to remember that during the 9 months of pregnancy a woman should not consume alcohol?'' If this were to occur, they wondered, ``Would the world listen?''

On the 9th hour of the 9th day of the 9th month every year they called upon all the peoples of the world to observe a moment of silence to remind women of childbearing age that no amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy.

These pioneering activists, most of whom were adoptive and foster parents, led by Brian Philcox and Bonnie Buxton of Toronto, Canada, and Teresa Kellerman of Tucson, AZ, did not have the resources of large public relations firms or well connected lobbyists. They organized the first International FAS Awareness Day, which was observed on September 9, 1999, on a shoestring using the Internet. Rapidly their group grew to include more than 70 volunteer coordinators in eight countries. Each year I receive e-mails from places like New Zealand, Germany, and my own State of Alaska, telling me about their local FAS Day observances. Through this grassroots awareness effort, many women of childbearing age learned for the first time that no amount of alcohol in pregnancy is good.

On September 9, 2004, for the first time, the moment of silence was observed on the Senate floor. I would hope that this would become an annual tradition until fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are eradicated.

The resolution that I have introduced today designates September 9, 2005, as National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Awareness Day. Although September 9 is several months off, I have asked that the resolution be considered at this time as a tribute to the efforts of the FASD parents and advocates who have come to Washington, DC, educate all of us about the dangers of alcohol and pregnancy and to provide them with a tool to encourage each of their communities to observe and participate in FASDAY 2005 when they return home.

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