Blogs Comment On McCain's VP Pick, Proposed HHS Rule, Justice Ginsburg's Views On Roe

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Women's Health / Gynecology;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 03 Sep 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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The following is a summary of selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "Health Care Providers and the Conscience Exception," Bridget Crawford, Feminist Law Professors: The blog entry includes comments from Terrance DaRosa of Pace Law School about HHS' proposed regulation that addresses conscience exceptions for health care providers who oppose abortion rights. According to DaRosa, an "increase of health professionals who go into gynecology and refuse to provide abortions and related services in effect helps to foster a shortage of health care providers." DaRosa also says that "the focus should not be on the views of health care providers; it should be on the needs of the patients," adding that the "government should not be allowed to put people's health and lives at risk like this because of certain people's subjective 'values'" (Crawford, "Feminist Law Professors," 8/29).

~ "Sarah Palin and the Meaning of Choice," Feministing: The blog post addresses Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his vice presidential running mate and Palin's announcement that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. According to the blog entry, it is "absolutely absurd" for the McCain campaign aides to state that Bristol "made the decision" on her own to carry the pregnancy to term and then "push for policies that take away that choice." The decision is viewed by the "antichoice Republican base as affirmation that Palin shares their values," but the "underlying message" that Palin's daughter "had a choice is a validation of pro-choice values," according to the blog post ("Feministing," 9/1).

~ "Pro-Lifers Ecstatic Over Selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain's Vice Presidential Running Mate," National Right to Life Committee's "News and Views": McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate is a "20 on a scale of one to 10," an NRLC blog post says. According to the blog, Palin, who opposes abortion rights, will "fundamentally change the dynamics of the contest for president." The blog post says that Palin "is Middle America incarnate" and "ardently pro-life," adding that McCain "could not have chosen a more compatible, more exciting running mate" ("News and Views," National Right to Life Committee, 8/29).

~ "Justice Ginsburg Reflects on Roe v. Wade Today," Cindy Cooper, RH Reality Check: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was honored by the Veteran Feminists of America this summer in "A Salute to Feminist Lawyers 1963-1975," which was held June 9 in New York City, Cooper writes in the blog entry. The entry provides Ginsburg's answers to audience questions on the state of reproductive freedom, including Roe v. Wade. Ginsburg said that she would "never" put her "faith" in "one single Supreme Court decision," adding, "What has to be preserved is the right of a woman to have access to the means to control her own reproductive capacity," which is "much more than the bare right of a woman of means to obtain an abortion" (Cooper, "RH Reality Check," 9/2).

~"McCain's Sexist VP Pick," Ann Friedman, "Tapped," American Prospect: Friedman writes that "Palin's addition to the ticket takes Republican faux-feminism to a whole new level." According to Friedman, the selection of Palin "plays to the assumption that disaffected" supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) do "not care about her politics -- only her gender." Friedman writes that by picking Palin, "Republicans are lending credence to the sexist assumption that women voters are too stupid to investigate or care about the issues and merely want to vote for someone who looks like them" (Friedman, "Tapped," American Prospect, 8/29).

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