Op-Ed: Maureen Flatley: Survivors deserve access to the medicines that keep them alive

We have a mental health crisis in America, and too many people are suffering. While we rightfully are quick to associate mental health issues with veterans suffering from PTSD or millions of Americans with depression or substance abuse, often forgotten are children who have been abused by child predators who now rely on access to medicines to make their lives tolerable. These are critical tools for long-term recovery and care for those who have survived abuse.

Whether people know it or not, global generic manufacturers, especially from India, the European Union and the United Kingdom, are the reason American pharmacies stay stocked and prices stay within reach for families and are covered by insurance plans. Without that international supply, the U.S. medicine cabinet would collapse. And the people hurt include survivors working to reclaim their lives after trauma using antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, antipsychotics, seizure medications and other mood stabilizers.

That is why President Trump’s April 2 pharmaceutical tariff proclamation deserves credit for getting this right. Generic drugs, biosimilars, and their ingredients were explicitly exempted from his latest round of tariffs for at least one year. By shielding generics from tariffs on imported medicine, the president protected the very medicines that survivors depend on most.

Decades of research show survivors of childhood sexual abuse are more likely to suffer depression, more likely to have anxiety disorders and far more likely to meet criteria for PTSD, sleep disorders, or even tragically attempt suicide. More than half of trafficking survivors return home with diagnosable mental disorders and many need to incorporate medicine into their treatment regimes.

Some lawmakers seem determined to score political points by casting suspicion on foreign-made generics, especially those from India. India is a major source for generic mental health drugs, which account for about 97% of all prescriptions to treat these conditions. That political rhetoric ignores the importance of having a reliable, multifaceted supply chain with multiple points of failure. Not facing this reality would be short-sighted at best and malicious at worst.

Even years after a predator is brought to justice and put behind bars, the victims will have to live with those scars and use therapy and medicine to help fix their lives again. But disrupting imported generics makes it more likely that patients will be forced off their medication. Data shows that interruption of mental health care among trauma survivors is associated with higher dropout from treatment and poorer long-term outcomes.

There are also serious concerns about the quality of drugs being shared over prescription counters. That is why the FDA should be applauded for its work with foreign facilities to monitor and collaborate on quality. India, for example, has added more FDA-approved facilities in the past several years than any other region, and last year hosted more FDA inspections as a percentage of total facilities than the United States.

Are there bad actors overseas? Of course. They should be shut down, prosecuted, or prevented from exporting to the United States. But attacking entire countries or strangling global supply chains because of isolated failures is political theater.

If lawmakers truly want to strengthen our medicine supply chain, they should grow our international partnerships with the European Union, UK, India and others that keep lifesaving medicines affordable and available. They should hold bad actors accountable while supporting foreign manufacturers who are investing in modern quality systems and meeting the FDA’s toughest standards. They should also look at what market conditions and regulations in the United States could be holding back more domestic drug manufacturing.

At the end of the day, this is not a conversation about imports and exports. This is a debate about the people who depend on these medicines. It is about children, the ones we as a nation fail to protect soon enough, and the ones who must live with the consequences for the rest of their lives. If we are serious about stopping predators, then we must also be serious about supporting the survivors they leave behind. That means empowering law enforcement to take predators off the street, and making sure every survivor has the care, treatment and affordable medicines they need to reclaim their lives.

Maureen Flatley, President, Stop Child Predators. In 2006, Maureen was instrumental in the creation and passage of Masha’s Law, which tripled the civil penalty for predators downloading CSAM.