Sophoan Sorn

Healthcare Prof:

The Chinese government reportedly has abandoned plans to force a woman who is six months pregnant to have an abortion under the nation’s one-child policy, CNSNews.com reports. Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) — both members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China — said the case demonstrates the U.S. should not reinstate funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which the Bush administration blocked in 2002 within the grounds that UNFPA money was becoming used to support coercive abortion procedures under China’s one-child policy.

Radio Totally free Asia and the Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that Chinese authorities on Monday took Arzigul Tursun — a member with the Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority — to a hospital against her will, where she was expected to have an abortion, according to CNSNews.com (Goodenough, CNSNews.com, 11/19). Under China’s one-child coverage, ethnic minorities — such as the Uyghurs — are permitted to have up to three children if they live in rural areas and up to two children if they live in urban areas, ABCNews.com reports. Tursun’s status was unclear since she lives in a rural area, while her husband is from a city, based on ABCNews.com (Schecter, ABCNews.com, 11/17).

UNFPA has lost about $240 million since the 2002 funding block, CNSNews.com reports. President-elect Barack Obama said he will restore the funding, a pledge that is also part of the Democratic Party platform. UNFPA has denied supporting coercive population control practices through its work in China, including that its programs are “designed to demonstrate that voluntarism and informed choice are key to successful family planning programs,” which aim to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and the need for abortion, in accordance with CNSNews.com (CNSNews.com, 11/19).

Earlier this week, Smith and Pitts made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to release Tursun. Smith said, “The Chinese Government is notorious for this barbaric practice, but to forcibly abort a woman while the world watches in full knowledge of what is going on would make a mockery of its claim the central government disapproves of the practice and with the [UNFPA] pretense that it has moderated the Chinese population planners’ cruelty” (ABCNews.com, 11/17). They said in a statement after Tursun’s release, “The decision to spare [Tursun] and her kid from the tragedy of forced abortion is, we hope, a sign that more ladies in China is going to be saved from this grave human rights abuse.” They added that they will continue to closely monitor the case “to help ensure that she and her family do not suffer any direct or subtle forms of retribution” (CNSNews.com, 11/19).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can see the entire Daily Women’s Well being Coverage Report, search the archives, or indication up for e-mail delivery here. The Every day Women’s Well being Coverage Report is really a cost-free services with the Nationwide Partnership for Ladies & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All legal rights reserved.

5 (1 votes)

Healthcare Prof:

3 (1 votes)

The defeat of abortion-related ballot initiatives in California, Colorado and South Dakota “leads for the inexorable conclusion: Abortion is finished like a wedge issue, at the least within the suddenly swing-state West,” Laura Chapin — a Democratic strategist and consultant for the No on 48 Campaign, which led opposition for the Colorado measure — writes in a U.S. News and World Report opinion piece. “Ballot initiatives are tempting for abortion opponents due to the fact they no less than partially sidestep the complications of the legislative process,” Chapin writes. She adds that this is “especially true in states like California and Colorado that have very low thresholds for getting something within the ballot.”

Chapin writes that Colorado’s Amendment 48 — which would have changed the state constitution to define a fertilized egg as a “person” — “backfired” because the “extreme nature” of the bill “strengthened the pro-choice community in Colorado by reminding people that we’re the moderates and by attracting support from a broad coalition that otherwise wouldn’t have been involved.” A “couple of major reasons” prevented abortion from currently being a “wedge issue in a formerly red state like Colorado,” including the truth that “libertarian-minded Colorado voters draw a bright line between something they disapprove of and something they think the government should ban,” she says. Chapin adds that “westerners are inherently allergic to becoming told what to do, especially by deceptive means. The word ‘sneaky’ came up most often among low-information voters in ‘No on 48′-sponsored focus groups due to the fact the amendment intentionally didn’t mention abortion at all.”

Chapin concludes, “Social issues are like rocking in a rocking chair — they give you something to do, but they actually don’t take you anywhere. … Abortion has lost its potency like a wedge issue in western states and could be on the same downward spiral nationally” (Chapin, U.S. News and World Report, 11/14).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You’ll be able to look at the whole Day-to-day Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or indicator up for e-mail delivery right here. The Day-to-day Women’s Health Policy Report is actually a totally free service of the Nationwide Partnership for Ladies & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

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5 (1 votes)

Healthcare Prof:

The Republican Party will regain political power only if its leaders remain firm in their socially conservative positions, including the party’s antiabortion stance, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention said this week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Land could be the president with the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission — SBC’s public coverage arm — and serves as the main spokesperson for the group, based on the Times-Picayune.

The Times-Picayune reports that “conservatives have opened a vigorous debate over their future” since the victory of President-elect Barack Obama two weeks ago. Some conservatives are advocating for “a return to ideological purity,” while “others argue that they must shift towards the center to build a winning coalition with social and economic moderates.” Land said the GOP must remain “faithful to core values” — especially around the issue of abortion. Land also said that the four-year process of finding the next GOP leader begins immediately. He added that “there’s not a pro-choice Republican among” the party’s emerging leaders — who include Govs. Bobby Jindal (La.), Sarah Palin (Alaska) and Tim Pawlenty (Minn.), as well as former Govs. Mike Huckabee (Ark.) and Mitt Romney (Mass.). Land said social conservatives should remain the base of the Republican Party, adding, “If the party’s going to reject anyone, it should be the nativists” fighting for stiff anti-immigration measures.

Although exit polls showed a new wave of Catholic support for Obama, white evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Republican Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Times-Picayune reports. Land said that “evangelicals and Mormons voted their values,” including which the Republican Party “can’t win with just pro-life votes. But without them they are doomed to electoral oblivion for a generation” (Nolan, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 11/19).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You’ll be able to look at the entire Daily Women’s Well being Policy Report, search the archives, or signal up for email delivery here. The Day-to-day Women’s Well being Policy Report is actually a totally free service with the Nationwide Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All legal rights reserved.

5 (2 votes)

Healthcare Prof:

A South Dakota regulation that requires a physician to tell a woman seeking an abortion that the procedure “will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being” with whom she has an “existing relationship” signals “a new step in states’ efforts to restrict abortion,” Zita Lazzarini with the University of Connecticut Well being Center and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Well being writes in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to Lazzarini, the law — which went into effect in July — “has import far beyond the borders of South Dakota,” particularly simply because it calls physicians’ First Amendment rights into question.

Although the 1992 Supreme Court ruling Planned Parenthood v. Casey established that states can require doctors to give pregnant girls information that “a reasonable patient could consider material to the decision of whether or not to undergo the abortion,” the 1977 ruling in Wooley v. Maynard established that when “required speech serves the state’s ideological interests, the state’s authority cannot ‘outweigh an individual’s First Amendment proper to avoid becoming the courier for this kind of information,’” Lazzarini writes. She adds that “although state legislatures have substantial discretion to define terms used in their laws” — this kind of as defining a fetus like a human currently being in biologic terms — “they cannot merely use the iteration of definitions to cloak religious, philosophical or metaphysical language in statutory garments and call it ‘scientific’ or ‘biologic.’”

With regard towards the sections of the legislation that refer to a woman’s “relationship” using the fetus, Lazzarini writes that “the protections that this kind of a relationship enjoys, and the rights ‘terminated’ by having an abortion, are so vague as to defy explanation.” She asks, “Is a woman who has an abortion violating constitutionally protected rights of her fetus? Could she be punished for doing so? Given that physicians must certify that girls understand the mandated information, could a physician who cannot correctly explain the meaning of the ‘relationship’ be prosecuted?” Lazzarini continues that due to the fact neither the U.S. or South Dakota constitutions explicitly mention this kind of a relationship — and due to the fact no constitutions, statutes or legal cases indicate that abortion terminates a woman’s “constitutional rights” — the “language about ‘relationships’ and the termination of ‘rights’ can reasonably be interpreted only as intending to intimidate pregnant ladies with vaguely described and legal-sounding consequences.” Furthermore, the law’s requirement that physicians certify the lady has received the information and record all questions and answers within the patient’s health-related record “seriously discourages medical professionals from providing alternative or more accurate information by inducing fear that” they would be unable to “certify” a woman’s understanding or expose themselves to liability. In addition, due to the fact girls must sign each page with the document, they have “no latitude to decide for themselves how much or little detail they wish to have about the procedure,” Lazzarini adds. These specifications thus “will have a chilling effect on open discussions between physicians and patients,” she writes.

Because the information within the consent script includes misleading information on purported increased risks of physiological distress, depression and suicide associated with abortion, the “statute forces physicians to violate their obligation to solicit truly informed consent — and thereby detracts from the essential trust between patients and their physicians,” Lazzarini writes. She continues, “By assuming that females are incapable of making decisions about abortion as competent adults in consultation with their physicians,” legal guidelines this kind of as the South Dakota statute “tend to reduce ladies to their reproductive capacity and suggest that they need the paternalistic protection of legislatures and society.” The legislation also threatens the physician-patient relationship in areas other than abortion, including contraception, end-of-life issues and stem cell-based therapies, Lazzarini says (Lazzarini, NEJM, 11/20).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You are able to view the whole Everyday Women’s Well being Policy Report, search the archives, or indicator up for email delivery right here. The Every day Women’s Health Policy Report can be a free service of the Nationwide Partnership for Females & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All legal rights reserved.

Healthcare Prof:

2.5 (two votes)

Choosing to “ignore the specialists,” the Bush administration plans to move forward with a proposed HHS rule that allows health care providers to opt out of care based on their ethical or religious beliefs, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial says. Based on the editorial, the administration argues the rule will ease “confusion” among well being care workers about their legal rights to refuse to participate in abortions and other procedures, “but it offers little to support the claim.” The editorial notes that three federal statutes and numerous state laws already protect “so-called ‘provider conscience rights.’” It continues, “If awareness truly will be the problem this rule aims to solve, an education campaign aimed on the workers would make more sense than layering new regulation on top of existing law. The truth that the administration isn’t pursuing this training course suggests the fears of its critics are warranted.”

By choosing to pursue the regulations, the Bush administration “is ignoring organizations that represent the very employees whose legal rights it says it really is trying to protect,” including the American Health care Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Hospital Association and other groups, according to the editorial. Officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also oppose the change and have said that they were not consulted before the rule was drafted.

The editorial continues, “Women’s wellness advocates are worried that the regulation leaves the door open for too much interpretation about what constitutes an abortion considering that the regulation does not define it,” noting that some groups “consider the use of contraceptives tantamount to abortion.” The editorial adds which the rule “takes the legal rights of patients out of the equation.”

Although President-elect Barack Obama has said he would rescind the rule if it’s implemented, the editorial warns that it could possibly be months before this occurs. It concludes, “It’s too late for your Bush White House to be making major policy changes that only will mean time wasted to undo them after Jan. 20″ (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/20).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. It is possible to see the entire Every day Women’s Health Coverage Report, search the archives, or signal up for email delivery here. The Every day Women’s Wellness Policy Report is actually a cost-free provider with the National Partnership for Girls & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All legal rights reserved.

Healthcare Prof:

4.5 (two votes)

Article Opinions:1 posts
The conservative group Family Research Council said President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as HHS secretary demonstrates which the next president will not govern from the “middle” on issues related to abortion, CNSNews.com reports (Jones, CNSNews.com, 11/20). Although the appointment has not been announced officially, Democratic officials on Wednesday said Daschle had accepted the post and would be given the job barring unforeseen problems (Freking, AP/Google.com, 11/19).

According to FRC, Daschle has an “extreme” political ideology and was “a notorious opponent of each pro-life measure” during his tenure as Senate majority leader. FRC also said Daschle lacks public health experience, adding the new administration’s appointments “must seem incredibly ironic” for Americans “who thought this election was about ‘change’” (CNSNews.com, 11/20). Daschle, who recently wrote a book on his proposals for improving the U.S. wellness care system, is expected to work closely with Obama on plans to expand wellness insurance coverage, based on the Washington Post (Connolly, Washington Post, 11/20).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You’ll be able to view the entire Day-to-day Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or indication up for e-mail delivery right here. The Daily Women’s Wellness Policy Report can be a cost-free services with the Nationwide Partnership for Females & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All legal rights reserved.

4.5 (two votes)

Healthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

Ghana’s government should increase efforts to encourage safe abortion procedures and supply reproductive health education to reduce its maternal mortality rate, Jehu Appiah — country director of Ipas Ghana — said in a recent speech in the course of an advocate training meeting in the University of Ghana, Ghana’s Statesman reports. In accordance with Appiah, unsafe abortion procedures account for 30% of maternal deaths in Ghana. Many Ghanaians overlook the 1985 law that legalized abortion, Appiah said, including that government enforcement is needed to ensure safe access to abortion procedures. Appiah said cultural and spiritual beliefs also contribute to maternal deaths from unsafe abortions. He added that females often “opt for abortion whenever they get pregnant” and “use all sort of means to just get rid with the pregnancy since of public ridicule.”

Appiah pressed officials to make maternal well being a priority and strengthen partnerships aimed at funding and improving sexual and reproductive wellness programs. He also referred to as for that inclusion of family planning products, especially emergency contraception for rape survivors, in Ghana’s national wellness insurance program. The meeting was organized by Ghana Women’s Voice in partnership with Ipas Ghana (Ani-Awukubea, Statesman, 11/20).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You are able to look at the entire Day-to-day Women’s Well being Coverage Report, search the archives, or signal up for email delivery here. The Everyday Women’s Wellness Coverage Report is a totally free services with the Nationwide Partnership for Females & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Healthcare Prof:

USA Today on Friday featured an editorial and an opposing opinion piece examining the debate among antiabortion groups over whether to work with abortion-rights groups to reduce the number of abortions through improved social programs.

~ “Abortion Foes Take New Tack”: “Realism seems to have struck some ardent foes of abortion,” the editorial says, including, “After 35 years of trying to outlaw the procedure nationally while chipping away at abortion legal rights state by state, they have decided to add a new and sensible initiative. They’ll work with all the other side to reduce the number of abortions.” The editorial continues, “Even before election day, a loose coalition of conservative academics, prominent antiabortion pastors, lay Catholics and other activists began working with old enemies within the pro-abortion rights camp to push a new agenda” aimed at reducing the number of abortions by improving social programs. These advocates “are around the right track,” the editorial says, incorporating that their agenda includes “passage of measures to supply low-income, pregnant females using the kind of solutions and education that could discourage them from seeking abortions.” According to the editorial, these antiabortion advocates have not “changed their minds” or become “any less committed to their cause,” but “they have done the new math. And the numbers don’t add up to more anti-abortion justices within the U.S. Supreme Court or a sea change on the issue among most Americans.” Although the abortion rate has “fallen steadily for nearly 3 decades, … in 2000, the abortion rate among poor women was still four instances higher than girls making $30,000 a year or more,” in accordance with the Guttmacher Institute, the editorial says. It adds, “This argues for giving more support to low-income ladies to help prevent unintended pregnancies and to help those who want to have a little one. The new coalition is working on the latter goal.” Nonetheless, the “new approach” has drawn critics from in the antiabortion movement “who see any compromise as selling out.” Although “[f]inding common ground on this kind of a personal and intractable issue has seemed impossible,” a “diverse group of longtime abortion foes … has done it in recent months,” the editorial says. It concludes, “We hope they can do even more, particularly in finding ways to make contraceptives more widely obtainable and in improving sex education. Meanwhile, if the first indicatorinside the abortion wars helps make the procedure much less common but still available, it will be a notable accomplishment” (USA Today, 11/21).

~ “Compromise Equals Betrayal,” Joseph Scheidler: In a response for the USA Today editorial, Scheidler — nationwide director of the Pro-Life Action League — writes that “[t]here is no evidence that increasing social programs — this kind of as low-cost wellness care and day care, college grants and maternity homes — will impact a woman’s abortion decision.” He adds, “Those of us who have spent years outside abortion clinics, talking with abortion-bound women, are keenly aware of what leads ladies there. Often, the woman feels she has no option simply because someone important in her life refuses to support a decision to keep the baby.” He writes that traditional antiabortion groups “see the effort to combine pro-life and pro-choice forces like a betrayal within the part of pro-lifers. Besides, it has been tried, several instances. And it always fails.” Scheidler continues, “You can’t compromise with evil. And abortion is an intrinsic evil.” He concludes, “Women are not looking for government-operated social programs. They’re looking for someone to care, someone to love them. Government programs cannot do that” (Scheidler, USA Today, 11/21).

Broadcast Coverage

In related news, KCRW’s “To the Point” on Thursday included a discussion about the potential shift in strategy inside of the antiabortion-rights movement following the defeat of several antiabortion ballot measures and the victory of President-elect Barack Obama. Guests on the program included Cynthia Gorney — a professor of journalism at University of California-Berkeley — and Nicholas Cafardi — former dean with the Duquesne University School of Regulation and a Catholic canon lawyer (Olney, “To the Point,” KCRW, 11/20).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You are able to see the entire Everyday Women’s Wellness Coverage Report, search the archives, or indication up for e-mail delivery here. The Everyday Women’s Wellness Policy Report is actually a free of charge support with the National Partnership for Ladies & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All legal rights reserved.

1 (1 votes)

Healthcare Prof:

Article Opinions:1 posts
The following is a summary of selected women’s health-related blog entries.

~ “Sens. Clinton and Murray Introduce Legislation To Block New HHS Rule From Going into Effect,” Emily Douglas, RH Reality Check: Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced Thursday that Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have introduced legislation — known as the “Protecting Patients and Health Care Act” — that would block implementation of the proposed HHS conscience rule, Douglas reports. The rule would require that “any well being care entity that receives federal funds certify that none of its employees are required to assist with health care solutions they find objectionable,” including abortion procedures and contraception. In a statement, Clinton said, “In the final days of his administration, the president is again putting ideology first and attempting to roll back health care protections for girls and families.” Diane Quest, PPFA spokesperson, said, “This legislation sends a strong message to administrative agencies that Congress is willing to act when agencies exceed their authority by going beyond the scope of existing laws and congressional intent.” The regulations also are opposed by several physicians’ groups, women’s well being groups, officials within the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, President-elect Obama and more than 200,000 individuals who submitted comments against the rule, according to Douglas. The regulations also “appear to violate the Bush administration’s own memorandum, which directed departments not to engage in ‘midnight policymaking,’ except within the case of exceptional circumstances,” she writes, incorporating that the administration has not indicated why the HHS rule is considered an exceptional circumstance (Douglas, RH Reality Check, 11/20).

~ “Anti-Choicers Switching Up Strategy?” Feministing: Responding to a recent Washington Post article that detailed how some antiabortion advocates are focusing on reducing abortion rates through social programs — rather than by overturning Roe v. Wade — the blog entry notes that contraception has not been mentioned as a way to prevent abortions. The entry says that “increased health and child care opportunities for ladies are a great thing — and frankly, it’s about time the folks who blather on about fetuses start supporting social programs that truly help men and women — but the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. That means birth control.” The entry adds that despite efforts by abortion-rights groups that have known as on antiabortion groups “to support increased contraception entry for a mutual goal of decreasing unwanted pregnancies … anti-choicers continue to turn a blind eye. That’s since reducing unwanted pregnancies isn’t their goal, and they don’t want ladies to realize that anti-choice groups don’t support use of contraception” (Feministing.com, 11/19).

~ “Pro-Family, Anti-Baby?” ProLifeBlogs: The blog entry concerns why antiabortion ballot measures in California, Colorado and South Dakota were defeated but measures in several states “restoring or defending the traditional definition of marriage” passed. Based on the entry, while many voters “defended marriage — and by extension, the family” — a large number with the same voters did not support the antiabortion measures. The entry asks, “How can American be pro-family but anti-baby?” (ProLifeBlogs.com, 11/18).

~ “Oklahoma’s Ultrasound Fantasy World,” Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check: Although several states have laws mandating that a lady undergo an ultrasound prior to an abortion, an Oklahoma law (SB 1878) — which would also require females to listen to a detailed description of an embryo or fetus — is really a “classic example of how the anti-choice stereotype of girls as dumb bunnies who can easily be tricked into childbirth through sentimentality barely conceals a much more hostile, punishing see of ladies,” Marcotte writes in the blog entry. She adds, “The justification for this regulation may be the sentimental dumb bunny stereotype, but the practical effect is to make the abortion process as punishing as achievable for your lady who has violated the sexual standards with the right-wing Christians who passed this regulation.” Implementation with the Oklahoma legislation has been blocked until March, and Marcotte writes that the reason it has generated “even more outrage than these laws usually do” is due to the fact the ultrasound specifications are particularly patronizing. She writes, “When you get proper down to it, laws like these are passed mainly by groups of men who have extremely low opinions of females, who literally think that the only reason girls get abortions is that they don’t know what getting pregnant really means.” Marcotte concludes, “In reality, as the Oklahoma law illustrates, ultrasound laws are primarily based not in science, but in a fantasy world where girls are stupid, doctors are deceptive and misogynist lawmakers are the saviors of women” (Marcotte, RH Reality Check, 11/20).

~ “Obama Selects Daschle To Head HHS,” National Appropriate to Life Committee blog: The blog entry says that Obama’s selection of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) for HHS secretary draws a “stark” contrast to current HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, who “has been the driving force behind” a proposed rule that would allow wellness care providers who receive federal grants to opt out of care according to their moral or spiritual beliefs. The entry details Daschle’s support for the duration of his time like a senator for bills that supported abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research. Daschle also “tried to help elect more pro-abortion Senate candidates,” based on the blog, which adds that Daschle wrote a fundraising letter for NARAL Pro-Choice America (Nationwide Right to Life Committee blog, 11/20).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. It is possible to view the whole Daily Women’s Well being Coverage Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery here. The Daily Women’s Wellness Policy Report is actually a cost-free support with the Nationwide Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

? 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All legal rights reserved.