Blogs Comment On Health Reform, Maternal Mortality, Breast Cancer, Other Topics

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

White House To Meet With Antiabortion Activists Next Week," Jake Tapper, ABC News' "Political Punch": Melody Barnes, domestic policy adviser to President Obama and director of the Domestic Policy Council, and White House Director of Public Liaison Tina Tchen on Thursday will meet with Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life Action to discuss reproductive rights-related issues in health reform proposals, the blog entry says. According to Yoest, the meetings' participants will discuss abortion, provider "conscience" clauses and care for the elderly. The meeting comes after Yoest wrote a letter to Obama in June. In the letter, Yoest said that health reform legislation "would delegate to bureaucratic committees the role of determining the minimum benefits that any private or public health care plan must offer," including family planning and abortion services. Yoest wrote that she is concerned that the bills do not include language that explicitly excludes coverage for abortion services, adding, "We're a non-partisan group so I felt like we in good faith needed to make the effort" to reach out to the White House (Tapper, "Political Punch," ABC News, 9/11).
"When Planning a Pregnancy Can Save a Woman's Life," Ana Langer, Huffington Post blogs: A recent UNICEF report "is the latest in a series of drumbeats for a concerted, large-scale campaign to save the lives of mothers and newborns worldwide, far too many of whom are dying from entirely preventable causes," Langer, president of EngenderHealth, writes. She adds that Congress should approve a spending increase for family planning and maternal health in the fiscal year 2010 Foreign Operations Bill (S 1434). According to Langer, 99% of the more than half million maternal deaths per year occur in developing countries, "where maternal care is scarce." The U.S. "can do our part" to reduce maternal mortality "by doing more to fund lifesaving efforts" like family planning services, Langer continues. "Education about, and access to, contraception is also critical for saving lives ... because when women and their partners are empowered to decide if and when to have children, it can significantly reduce the likelihood that mothers will die in childbirth," Langer writes. She adds, "In this day and age, no woman should die giving life," and "no woman should die because she was unable to plan her pregnancy." The health of women and their children "is the currency that stabilizes communities and allows for economic development," Langer continues, concluding, "That's what family planning is about, and it's why [it] should be included in any global effort to protect the lives of women and newborns" (Langer, Huffington Post blogs, 9/14).
"Stoking Fire: Anti-Choicers Target Komen Foundation," Eleanor Bader, RH Reality Check: The well-documented fact that an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer "has failed to quiet" antiabortion groups and endocrinologist Joel Brind of Baruch College, who first claimed a link between abortion and breast cancer in the early 1980s, Bader writes. She adds that "apparently, preaching to their own hasn't gotten the antis adequate play, so they are now targeting Susan G. Komen for the Cure," a group that advocates for breast cancer treatment and research. The organization, which has raised more than $60 million for research, has been "dubbed ... a menace to women" by Roman Catholic dioceses across the U.S. and organizations like STOPP, an affiliate of the American Life League, Bader writes. She continues, "The naysayers have two objections," including "advis[ing] women to begin reproducing when they are young and warn[ing] them about the abortion/breast cancer connection." Bader adds, "Not surprisingly, this contention has gained little traction, even among right-wingers, so the anti-Komen posse has trucked out a reliable antiabortion bugaboo," the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which receives grants for breast cancer screening and education programs from Komen. "Although it's far too soon to predict the upshot of the federal health care battle, by all accounts the anti-Komen campaign has fallen flat, doing little to hamper the group's ongoing efforts," Bader says (Bader, RH Reality Check, 9/15).
"Rights Group Calls Obama's Comments on Abortion in Health Reform 'Lamentable,'" Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: Jacobson writes, "For women's rights groups, who saw health reform as a chance to advance reproductive justice -- including equity access for low-income women to all legal reproductive and sexual health services including abortion care -- the past few months have been a serious disappointment." According to Jacobson, "Disorganization and lack of clear leadership from the White House and Congress [have] left the Democrats once again ceding the conversation and the political territory to the far right." She adds, "Now, even in a compromise in which no federal funding for legal abortion services for women will be allowed, the president has been persistently reinforcing, if only rhetorically, the barriers low-income women face to care, and to exercising their basic human rights to whether, when and with whom to have children." She reports that the Center for Reproductive Rights has "openly expressed disappointment in the process and in the president's comments on abortion funding in his speech" last Wednesday to Congress. Jacobson includes a statement from CRR President Nancy Northup. She concludes, "There is as yet no guarantee that the Capps Amendment -- which protects the rights of women to access to abortion care under private insurance even where federal funding subsidies exist for some enrollees -- will survive the legislative process, and far right groups and legislators continue to mislead on the issue of abortion care in health reform" (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 9/11).
"Did Sebelius Back More Steps for Banning Abortion Funding in Health Care?" Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report's "God & Country": Gilgoff writes that comments from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during an appearance Sunday on ABC's "This Week" "seemed to suggest that President Obama would go further than the current House health care bill (HR 3200) does in preventing public financing of abortions." However, Gilgoff says, a "second reading of her remarks makes it pretty clear that she's merely seconding Obama's previous commitment to preventing government money from funding abortion." He concludes, "Religious conservatives disagree, but I don't think Sebelius' comments mean that Obama's coming around to their side" (Gilgoff, "God & Country," U.S. News & World Report, 9/14).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Pope Condemns Sexual Violence Against Women, Criticizes African Countries' Move To Legalize Some Abortions

Speaking in Angola during a weeklong tour of Africa, Pope Benedict XVI on Friday condemned sexual violence against women and criticized moves by some African countries to legalize some abortions, the AP/Google reports. In a speech in Luanda, Angola, Benedict said, "Particularly disturbing is the crushing yoke of discrimination that women and girls so often endure, not to mention the unspeakable practice of sexual violence and exploitation, which causes such humiliation and trauma." He also condemned the "irony of those who promote abortion as a form of 'maternal' health care," adding, "How disconcerting the claim that the termination of life is a matter of reproductive health." According to the AP/Google, the pope's comments referred to an African Union agreement signed by Angola and 44 other countries stating that abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger. Angola, a former Portuguese colony, is predominantly Catholic, with about 8.6 million residents, more than 60% of the population, who are members of the faith. Traditionally, Angolans have had large families, but in recent years many have cited the country's high cost of living as a reason for wanting to curtail family growth, according to the AP/Google (Simpson, AP/Google, 3/20).

Vatican Official Speaks Out Against Excommunication Over Abortion for Brazilian Girl

In related news, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the top bioethics official for the Vatican, said that excommunication was unwarranted in the case of two Brazilian doctors who performed an abortion on a nine-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather, the Religion News Service/Washington Post reports. Fisichella's statement on the abortion case was the lead article in a recent issue of the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. The abortion case stirred controversy when the local archbishop, Josa Cardoso Sobrinho, excommunicated the doctors and the mother of the girl for allowing the abortion, which was performed when the girl was about 15 weeks pregnant. The doctors said carrying the pregnancy to term would have been life-threatening for the girl, who weighed 80 pounds. Fisichella, who did not address the excommunication of the girl's mother, said that although abortion is an "intrinsically wicked act," it might have been the lesser evil under the circumstances. He stressed that a degree of moral discretion is required for doctors, a position that is in contrast to the church's usual stance on abortion, the Religion News Service/Post reports. "The life was in serious danger because of the pregnancy in progress," he wrote, adding, "How to act in these cases? An arduous decision for the physician and for the moral law itself."

According to the Religion News Service/Post, Fisichella's article included a "frank rebuke" of Archbishop Sobrinho, accusing the archbishop of rushing to declare excommunication. Fisichella wrote that Sobrinho's action affected the "credibility" of the church's teaching, adding that now the church "appears in the eyes of so many as insensitive, incomprehensible and lacking in mercy." The Religion News Service/Post reports that Vatican journalist Sandro Magister said it is likely that Fisichella's statement was approved by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is considered to be the Vatican's second highest official after the Pope. Fisichella's statement contradicts Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, who publicly defended the action of Archbishop Sobrinho (Rocca, Religion News Service/Washington Post, 3/21).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Blogs Comment On Levi Johnston, Obama's Budget Proposal, Other Topics

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "Why We Need Bristol (And Levi)," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: Bristol Palin and the Candie's Foundation's "shared message to teens is: you don't want to become a teen parent," something that "traditional pregnancy prevention messages have often missed" because they "assumed that teens don't need convincing on that issue," Page writes. The Candie's Foundation recently made Palin, the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), an ambassador to promote teen pregnancy prevention. However, "there is one thing very important missing from the Candie's campaign," Page says. The national conversation on teen pregnancy "desperately needs" the involvement of teenage boys like Levi Johnston, the father of Palin's four-month-old son, Page writes. Johnston "brings with him a great chance to make boys the stakeholders they inevitably are" and "offers a unique perspective on the difficulties of being a teen father, one that will resonate with boys in a way [Palin's] point of view will not," she continues. In making Palin a teen pregnancy prevention ambassador, the Candie's Foundation is "taking a big risk," and it "would extend that risk further by giving [Johnston] an equal voice in the discussion," Page writes. She continues, "But with big risk comes the possibility for great gains, too." Palin and Johnston are "bravely offering their intensely personal misstep up for others to learn from. The may be at odds with each other, ... but they are united in their message about the not-so-glamorous life of teen parents," she says (Page, Birth Control Watch, 5/8).

~ "The Next Justice: What Obama Wants," Geoffrey Stone, Huffington Post blogs: Four factors "will be especially important" to President Obama when he is deciding on his Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter, according to Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago. Stone says that the factors include: high intellectual ability; moderately liberal stances on issues; a "strong voice" on the role of the Supreme Court; and the ability to "[b]uild a consensus within the Court." The "essence," for Obama, of the terms "moderate liberal" and "conservative" is "his continuing reference to 'empathy,'" Stone writes. He continues that Obama "wants to appoint a justice who understands that a unique role in our system of government is to be especially attentive to the interests of the unrepresented, the oppressed, political and religious dissenters, those accused of crime and minorities who have traditionally lost out in the political process." The U.S. and the Supreme Court "badly need a justice who can articulate a progressive view of constitutional interpretation, both to counter the conservatives on the Court and to change the terms of the national debate," he writes. Obama will also "want to appoint a justice who adds a measure of diversity of experience and perspective within the court," such as a woman or racial minority, Stone concludes (Stone, Huffington Post blogs, 5/11).














~ Blog Posts Examine Sex Education, Other Provisions in Obama's Budget Proposal, Jodi Jacobson/Sharon Camp/AmplifyYourVoice: Obama's fiscal 2010 budget proposal that was released last week "puts us on the road to evidence-based public health policy," Jacobson writes in a RH Reality Check blog entry. However, it "does not, unfortunately, really advance the journey towards comprehensive sex education, and is therefore a missed opportunity," she writes (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 5/9). Camp writes in a Huffington Post blog entry that although the "most welcome development" of the budget proposal is "the abolition of 'abstinence-only-until-marriage' programs," it is important to remember that the proposal "is just a starting point" and that "Congress gets a crack at whether to accept, reject or modify the president's recommendations." Camp in the blog post assesses several areas of the budget related to women's health, including sex education, access to abortion, family planning and global health issues, among others (Camp, Huffington Post blogs, 5/8). AmplifyYourVoice writes in a Daily Kos blog entry that the Obama proposal "struck a blow to the abstinence-only community" but that "these people are not giving up." The blog post continues, "And considering that our fight to end funding for abstinence-only programs is long from over, considering that Congress must pass this budget without sneaking funding for ab-only back in, neither should we." The blog post includes links to videos of comments from abstinence-only supporters (AmplifyYourVoice, Daily Kos, 5/8).

~ "For the Culture War, a Hail Mary," Chris Korzen, Huffington Post blogs: Attempts by "culture warriors" on the right to "sabotage" President Obama's plan to give the commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame later this month "is ostensibly an effort to reassert the Church's position on abortion," Korzen writes. "In reality, the Notre Dame 'scandal' is little more than a manufactured controversy, and a predictable product of the Republican coalition's current sorry state of affairs," he continues. Korzen writes that Obama's "genuine commitment to prevention has ruffled the feathers of absolutists on both sides of the aisle. But for abortion 'grays' -- those Americans who remain conflicted about abortion, many of them moderate swing voters -- the president's willingness to acknowledge the moral dimension of the issue is a breath of fresh air." He notes that the opposition to the Notre Dame speech isn't coming from the "pious masses" but from "Catholic Republican front groups" like Fidelis, the Catholic League and the Cardinal Newman Society. He concludes that even "if the party faithful can be convinced that the culture war's benefits outweigh its costs, the radical voice will continue to dominate the Republican agenda" (Korzen, Huffington Post blogs, 5/8).

~ "'Conscience Rules' Ignore Patient," Sally Steenland, Washington Post's On Faith: President Obama's proposed rescission of the Bush administration's HHS provider "conscience" rule "should set a fairer balance between the rights, needs and responsibilities of providers and patients," Steenland, a senior policy adviser at the Center for American Progress, writes. Steenland adds that the Obama administration's final version is expected to be released soon. The public debate surrounding the current rule "is usually framed as one of provider conscience vs. patient access," she says, adding, "The problem is that this frame ignores the conscience of the patient." For example, she writes, a woman might be taking birth control because of a decision from her conscience, and when a pharmacist refuses to fill that woman's prescription, the pharmacist is "defying the patient's conscience in favor of his or her own." Steenland continues, "One conscience should never trump all others." She writes that "we must find ways to negotiate conflicting consciences so that religious liberty is respected and health care is safeguarded" (Steenland, Washington Post's On Faith, 5/11).

~ "In Choosing Souter's Replacement, Obama Should Follow the Lead of ... George W. Bush?," Mitchell Bard, Huffington Post blogs: Bard writes that the "single most important thing" he learned in law school was that "U.S. Supreme Court justices are far more powerful in shaping American society than the average person realizes," adding that "the selection of a justice to the Court is one of the most important decisions a president will make during his time in office." He continues, "I have full confidence that President Obama understands the immense importance of selecting the right replacement for David Souter. My hope is that as he goes through the process, he uses as his guide" former President George W. Bush -- "the most unlikely of mentors" -- in three areas. Bard notes Obama should "influence the court for the next 20 years" as Bush did in selecting younger judges or "go Bush one better and appoint a justice in his or her early to middle 40s, giving the candidate the opportunity to shape American policy for 30 to 40 years." Obama also should put in place "progressives to balance out Bush's conservative picks," Bard says. Furthermore, "Obama needs to select someone with an unassailably qualified resume," as "a lack of qualification is the only lifeline to the Republicans in bringing the choice down." Bard concludes that if Obama follows Bush's lead when selecting a replacement for Souter -- "a young progressive with a traditionally impressive resume -- he will have done a good job in carrying out his responsibilities" (Bard, Huffington Post blogs, 5/11).

~ "Houston Pulls a Palin," Abigail Kramer, Salon's Broadsheet: Kramer criticizes the city of Houston's recent decision to bill a woman for forensic evidence collection at a local hospital after she was raped. "A big thank you to the criminal justice establishment of Houston for giving victims one more reason not to report rape," Kramer writes. According to Kramer, Texas has a Crime Victims' Compensation Fund that automatically pays up to $700 of the cost of an investigation of sexual assault, but state law requires that victims exhaust all other potential sources before the fund pays more. Kramer writes, "This isn't the first time we've seen such dangerous nonsense." She recalls when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), who at the time was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, allowed the city to charge victims for their own rape test kits, as well as other examples. Kramer concludes that it is difficult to know how common this practice is in other states because there is no federal law regulating who pays for what, which "would be treating rape like any other prosecutable, punishable violent crime" (Kramer, Salon's Broadsheet, 5/11).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Blogs Comment On Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings, Health Reform, Other Topics

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "Judge Sotomayor Provides Important Testimony on the Constitutional Right to Privacy and Its Application to Reproductive Rights," Marcia Greenberger, Womenstake: "One major line of questions, asked repeatedly throughout the hearings" for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was her "views on the constitutional right to privacy," Greenberger writes, adding, "Given that this right is central to women's lives, protecting" such "decisions involving whether to bear children ... and having consensual adult sexual relations, it is important to analyze Judge Sotomayor's answers carefully." According to Greenberger, because Sotomayor "had not ruled directly on the right to privacy as a federal judge, her testimony in this area warrants particular attention." Following questions from senators such as Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sotomayor portrayed a "clear agreement with the right to privacy and strong description of the court's current precedents regarding Roe and women's health," which "lend[s] further support to the view from her legal record that she would not undermine Roe v. Wade if confirmed to the Supreme Court" (Greenberger, Womenstake, 7/16).

~ "Major Steps Forward for Health Care Reform," Thao Nguyen, Womenstake: Nguyen, outreach manager for the National Women's Law Center, reports that the health care reform legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is "particularly important for women because of the critical headway it makes towards women's ability to secure access to quality, affordable health care throughout their lives." The bill "works towards confronting many of the particular obstacles faced by women in our current health care system," such as banning the "discriminatory" practice of basing insurance premiums on gender, even when maternity benefits are excluded, Nguyen writes. The bill also bans insurance companies from rejecting patients based on medical history, which has prevented many domestic violence survivors and women who have had caesarean sections from obtaining coverage. Nguyen concludes that "the momentum for health care reform could not have come at a more needed time" because women and their families "need quality, affordable and comprehensive health more than ever" (Nguyen, Womenstake, 7/15).

~ "Democrats for Life of America Ousts Member Who Supports Contraception," Feministing: Feministing reports that Democrats for Life of America removed Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) from its advisory board because he supports efforts to improve access to contraception. According to Ryan, he was dismissed from the board after four years after attempting to persuade the group to support contraceptive use as a way to avoid unintended pregnancies. According to the blog, "This is why we call anti-choicers 'anti-choice': because they're not just about making abortion illegal." It adds, "They don't want women to have access to contraception either -- something that 98% of American women will use at some point in their lives" (Feministing, 7/15).















~ "Umpires, Perspective and the Supreme Court," Jim Wallis, Sojourners' "God's Politics": "During his opening remarks for his own confirmation hearing in 2005, Chief Justice [John] Roberts made" an analogy between judges and umpires "that has gotten a lot of play in the media and has already been used quite a few times during" Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, Wallis writes. He adds that "nothing in the world would frustrate me more than an umpire who would call the game differently based upon the color of the jersey that" players were wearing. "But I haven't seen that happen," Wallis writes, adding, "In fact, the biggest problem we face isn't an umpire that has favored one team over the other, but umpires who make mistakes in their rulings and judgment because of their lack of perspective." He adds that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and "others who have picked up these talking points of criticism have mistaken a very particular view of the world. They have claimed an attribute that only belongs to God." According to Wallis, the "problem is that Sen. Sessions doesn't really want impartiality; he wants judges who will see things just like he would." He concludes that a senator who "wants only one perspective isn't really concerned with truth or justice, but with the maintenance of historic dominance and control" (Wallis, "God's Politics," Sojourners, 7/16).

~ "Are You a Condom Worshipper? (Or, When the Purity Pushers Lose Their Damn Minds)," Feministing: National Abstinence Clearinghouse President Leslee Uhruh's comment that supporters of comprehensive sex education are "condom worshippers" is a good example of "why folks in the virginity movement need to rebrand their image," a Feministing blog entry states. It notes that "the majority of the country ... want[s] their kids to learn medically accurate information about sex so they can make healthy decisions." The blog continues, "That's why more media-savvy abstinence-only leaders are now using more mainstream-friendly language" and rebranding themselves as "folks interested in 'holistic approaches' and 'healthy lifestyle choices.'" The post continues that "[w]hile I'm glad to see that these organizations are scrambling, I'm also a bit wary of writing them off completely," which is why "we have to continue to be vigilant on a state and community level." The blog recommends checking Advocates for Youth or SIECUS for updates on sex education policy (Feministing, 7/16).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Women's Health Advocates Use Health Reform To Tackle Gender Biases In Coverage

Women's health organizations and advocates are drawing attention to several lesser-known provisions in health reform legislation that would improve insurance coverage and health care for women, USA Today reports. Although the congressional debate over abortion coverage has garnered the most media attention among women's health issues in the reform debate, advocates say that provisions such as prohibiting insurance companies from charging women more than men for the same policies or requiring companies to offer maternity coverage in basic plans would "affect far more women, who have received inadequate care and coverage for too long," USA Today reports. As health reform bills near the final stages, advocates are working to ensure that women's health provisions are preserved as lawmakers look to trim the legislation's cost.

According to USA Today, the National Women's Law Center reports that 40 states and Washington, D.C., allow so-called "gender rating," in which insurance companies charge women more than men for the same individual policies or charge businesses with mostly female workers higher group rates. About 4.7 million women purchased individual insurance in states with this pricing practice in 2008, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, insurance companies currently can offer policies that exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions, including past caesarean sections, or deny maternity coverage if a woman is pregnant when she applies for a policy. Insurance companies can deny coverage to survivors of domestic violence in eight states and Washington, D.C.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she would like the final health reform bill to include provisions requiring minimum benefits packages offered by health plans to include coverage for preventive cancer screenings for women, including mammograms and Pap tests. "When it comes to health insurance, women are discriminated against," Mikulski said, adding, "We pay more and we get less, and often we are denied care." Robert Zirkelbach of America's Health Insurance Plans said the insurance industry supports eliminating gender rating and the practice of denying coverage to domestic violence survivors. According to Zirkelbach, most plans already cover maternity care, and there is a "good chance" that basic benefits packages will include such coverage.

Some Republicans, including Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), have been fighting the inclusion of maternity coverage in a basic benefits package. Kyl drew attention for his position on the issue last week in an exchange with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who supports the coverage. Kyl said in a hearing, "I don't need maternity care and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive." Stabenow replied, "I think your mom probably did." According to USA Today, an online video of the senators' comments has drawn about 150,000 views on YouTube (Hall, USA Today, 10/5).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.