Blogs Comment On HHS Rule, Colo. 'Personhood' Measure, Obama Campaign, Sex Education

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Abortion;  Sexual Health / STDs;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 24 Sep 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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

~ "New HHS Regs Would Hit Low-Income Women, Women of Color Hardest," Bethany Sousa, RH Reality Check: HHS claims its recently proposed regulations "will protect federally-funded health care providers from discrimination," but "in reality" the regulations will "further limit a woman's ability to obtain health services and increase the number of providers and institutions allowed to refuse her care," Sousa writes in a blog entry. Women of color and low-income women will be the most affected by the regulations in part because such women "already face significant hurdles in accessing health care, including discrimination, inflexible work schedules and inadequate childcare and transportation," Sousa writes, adding, "If they are turned away from health care providers, they may not have the resources to locate another physician or heath care facility to make arrangements for a second time." The proposed regulations "purposefully tip the balance further away from a woman's rights," Sousa writes, concluding, "Implementation of these regulations will only exacerbate the difficulties low-income women face in getting health care and allow the denial of vital health information and services to those who need it most" (Sousa, "RH Reality Check," 9/22).

~ "Persons or Problems? Colorado Has To Choose!" Judie Brown, ProLifeBlogs: The proposed Colorado Amendment 48 would "clarif[y] that every human being, from his beginning, is a person," and brings the "truth out of the closet of political correctness," Brown writes in a blog entry. According to Brown, the "enemies of human life have come out of the woodwork" in opposition to the initiative. Brown writes that over the past 35 years, the U.S. has "relegated a person's status prior to birth to that of an 'issue,' 'political hot potato' and other such nonsense. We have, for the most part, avoided focusing on the facts and have instead preferred polite conversation about opinions and religious beliefs." Brown concludes that Colorado voters have a "crucial choice: Affirm human dignity or affirm the cruelest act of child abuse ever to be decriminalized in a civilized nation" (Brown, "ProLifeBlogs," 9/19).

~ "Obama Plays Offense Asserting Pro-Education, Pro-Prevention, Pro-Choice Values," Scott Swenson, Huffington Post: Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has "clearly stated his beliefs and aggressively defended his values" on abortion, Swenson writes in a blog entry, adding that his "embrace of the education and prevention agenda long encompassed in the phrase 'pro-choice' represents a shift away from abortion politics as usual." Advocacy organizations and mainstream media on either side of the issue "too often ... have missed the nuance of sexual and reproductive health issues, and assumed a candidate's position on abortion defined them on many other issues," according to Swenson. The attention to the "full range" of sexual and reproductive health issues given by the mainstream media during this election is "giving voters and candidates a chance to talk about how these very personal and private issues translate to public policies in our pluralistic democracy," Swenson writes (Swenson, Huffington Post, 9/23).

~ "Some Thoughts About Barack Obama's 'Faith, Family and Values Tour,'" National Right to Life Committee's "News and Views": According to the blog entry, the Obama campaign is planning to conduct a tour of surrogates to tout the "strong faith and values" of Obama and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.). The entry says that the "idea" of the tour is that "there are plenty of people of faith who are not 'single issue' voters -- citizens who cast their vote contingent on a candidate's position on abortion." According to the blog, "It is one thing to say that there are many people of faith who will not necessarily vote for the pro-life candidate just because he or she stands up for unborn children. It is quite another to say that these same people wouldn't be aghast if they had any idea how militantly, across the board (and beyond) anti-life Obama actually is" ("News and Views," National Right to Life Committee, 9/22).

~ "Children Deserve A Sex Education Policy That Provides Answers," Susan Kelley-Stamerra, Huffington Post: In a blog entry regarding Republican ads criticizing Obama's support of a 2003 Illinois Senate bill that would have provided medically accurate sex education to students in kindergarten through 12th grade, Kelley-Stamerra quotes passages from the legislation and asks, "What clear-thinking parent doesn't want their child to learn, in the most thorough manner possible, 'how to say no to unwanted sexual advances' and to understand...'methods of preventing sexual assault...' or 'avoiding behavior that impairs one's judgment?" Kelley-Stamerra writes that "[c]reating educational opportunity includes creating educational safety," adding that Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, "would have our students learn from creationism that one day they will wake to find a rib missing and a new mate by their sides." Knowledge and power might "be the most valuable thing to children in keeping then safe," Kelley-Stamerra writes, concluding that lawmakers should "quit calling it plain old 'sex-ed.' We know from the Republican ticket that kids today know how to have sex. What we need them to know is outlined" in the bill Obama supported: "exercising good judgment" (Kelley-Stamerra, Huffington Post, 9/22).

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