By Brad Johnson, campaign manager of Forecast the Facts.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, the maker of Advil, ChapStick, and Viagra, is defending its relationship with the virulently anti-science Heartland Institute. Unlike competitor Eli Lilly, who dropped its support for Heartland after more than 150,000 people protested their “Unabomber” billboards, Pfizer continues to argue that it gets “significant benefits from our involvement” with the group.

In an email from “Customer Escalation” to Forecast the Facts about its decision to delete critical Facebook comments, Pfizer said its support for climate deniers helps “advance our business objectives”:

We do not agree with the Heartland Institute’s position on climate change.

Pfizer supports groups such as the Heartland Institute in specific health care policy issues (including vaccines and follow on biologics), and is also a member of several industry and trade groups that represent our industry and the business community at large. Our company and its stakeholders derive significant benefits from our involvement with these organizations, which help advance our business objectives related to healthcare policy.

Climate change is a fundamental global health threat, and it is a key facet of health care policy. The Heartland Institute’s radical attacks on climate science include denial of the impacts on climate pollution on health care policy:

“The best estimates of the net economic impact of the warming predicted by computer models show a small benefit–thanks to lower prices for energy, forestry products, and food–and unequivocal benefits to human health and longevity.” [Heartland Institute, President Joseph Bast, 7/22/04]

“Health Fears About Global Warming Are Unfounded.” [Heartland Institute, Senior Fellows S. Fred Singer and Dennis Avery, 10/1/07]

“Global Warming Health Fears Are Unsupported by Science.” [Heartland Institute, Senior Fellow James Taylor, 1/1/08]

“In summation, the material presented in this chapter represents overwhelming evidence for a positive effect of global warming on human health.” [Heartland Institute, Singer, Craig Idso, and Robert Carter, 8/29/11]

“EPA’S CARBON DIOXIDE RESTRICTIONS ENDANGER PUBLIC HEALTH” [Heartland Institute, Taylor, 4/14/12]

So what are the “significant benefits” the Heartland Institute provides? Pfizer has not disclosed how long it has supported the Heartland Institute, although leaked documents show a contribution of $130,000 in 2010. A review of Heartland’s website shows that its writers have heaped praise on Pfizer for years, implying a long-term relationship that goes back at least to 2002 and perhaps earlier.

Heartland’s other work on health care policy include demonizing Planned Parenthood, Obamacare, Medicaid, and the Food and Drug Administration.

President Obama declared this week as women’s health week, and though we too often hear about the attacks on women’s health, it seems like a good time to think about the positive measures in Congress — be them very few — to protect women’s health.

Believe it or not, Congress does have a few bills out there that are protections of women’s health, instead of attacks on it. So here are the top three bills in Congress aimed at protecting women’s health:

– The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act aims to protect pregnant workers from discrimination in the workplace by ensuring that their employers cannot deny them necessities to their prenatal health. Mothers-to-be sometimes need a water bottle or a stool to sit on, particularly as they near their delivery date or if they have any complications with their pregnancy. Yet women have been fired to trying to access these necessities on the job. The bill, introduced by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Susan Davis (D-CA) and George Miller (D-CA), requires employers to meet these needs.

– The Violence Against Women Act has been hotly debated in both the House and Senate, but at its core, it is a bill meant to safeguard women’s health. Unfortunately, rape and assault are a part of the health care that many women receive in their lives — roughly one in six women is sexually assaulted, and one in four experience domestic violence. VAWA protects victims of domestic violence so that incidents occur less frequently, but it also sets up rapid response for when those incidents do occur.

– The Protecting Women’s Access to Health Care Act is a Republican response to all of the attacks on Planned Parenthood. Introduced by Rep. Robert Dold (R-IL), the bill seeks to ensure that Planned Parenthood can not be denied funding under Title X, Congress’s family planning funding. Dold said, “We should not discriminate against hospitals and organizations that provide access to basic, preventative, and in some cases life-saving services.”

Aside from these legislative efforts, President Obama’s contraceptive mandate requires that employers provide contraception to their employees — an important step for improving women’s health and access to health care. So there is some good news for women’s health, with Democrats and some Republicans supporting legislation in favor of women’s interests. Now the nation will have to wait and see if Congress agrees to pass these measures.

Mississippi state Rep. Bubba Carpenter (R) said that it’s OK for women to have coat hanger abortions because it’s for a greater good.

A video obtained by Rachel Maddow’s blog captures Carpenter saying he is proud of Mississippi’s attempts to outlaw abortion outright, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled abortions legal in the United States.

And what about women who will perform self-induced abortions because they cannot afford to go out of state to get the procedure? “Hey,” he says, “you have to have moral values”:

It’s going to be challenged, of course, in the Supreme Court and all — but literally, we stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi, legally, without having to– Roe vs. Wade. So we’ve done that. I was proud of it. The governor signed it into law. And of course, there you have the other side. They’re like, ‘Well, the poor pitiful women that can’t afford to go out of state are just going to start doing them at home with a coat hanger. That’s what we’ve learned over and over and over.’

But hey, you have to have moral values. You have to start somewhere, and that’s what we’ve decided to do. This became law and the governor signed it, and I think for one time, we were first in the nation in the state of Mississippi

Watch it:

Mississippi recently passed a law meant that legislators claimed was meant to stop self-induced abortions, known as “coat hanger abortions,” which are generally extremely unsafe and dangerous to a woman’s health. At the same time, this law will likely force the state’s only abortion clinic to close.

Because drug manufacturers waive their patent rights in developing nations in compliance with the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, Americans have paid tens of thousands for the same HIV drugs that cost hundreds of dollars in Africa. The enormous cost burden — as much as $30,000 a year — makes it difficult for many HIV patients to keep up with drug regimens. But as Politico reports, a Senate subcommittee will hear a proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to help lower the costs. Sanders’ plan would offer prize money instead of patent rights to companies that make new HIV drugs, so the medication would go straight to the generic market.

Drugmakers argue that they can’t make a profit without drug patents, which lets them charge less in developing nations, but “these costs can be a huge barrier to treatment,” said Mark Harrington, executive director of the Treatment Action Group.

The hearing will also look at the challenges faced by HIV patients without access to health care:

The challenge for uninsured HIV patients has worsened during the recession, as many states have taken steps to contain costs in the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs [ADAP] funded jointly by state and federal dollars. Many patient advocates are hopeful that the health reform law will get coverage to many low-income HIV patients if it goes into effect in 2014, but they worry that patients could still face high co-pays for specialty drugs and other gaps in coverage.

Even with the discount offered through ADAP programs, Ann Lefert, policy director at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, told Politico that it still costs an average of $10,000 per year for one patient. And some states have waiting lists for their ADAP programs or are taking steps to contain costs.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly three out of four Americans with HIV are not receiving enough medicine or regular health care “to stay healthy or prevent themselves from transmitting the virus to others.”