Blogs Comment On Future Of Abortion Rights Under Obama Administration, 'Virginity Pledge' Study, Other Topics

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Women's Health / Gynecology;  Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 07 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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

 ~ "True Common Ground for the 111th Congress," Kay Steiger, RH Reality Check: The increased number of abortion-rights supporters in the House and Senate of the 111th Congress is "encouraging to the pro-choice community," Steiger writes. She adds that the addition of 14 senators endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and 177 abortion-rights advocates in the House gives Congress the "opportunity to solidify progressive legislation on reproductive rights that ensures access to common-ground measures like contraception and sexuality education while safeguarding access to abortion." Steiger discusses a "flawed" bill sponsored by Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), which has been pointed to as an example of centrist abortion legislation. "While many anti-choice legislators and groups will try to push bills like the Ryan-DeLauro bill as 'common ground,' such bills are actually pushing the legislative agenda on choice even further to the right" because of the inclusion of antiabortion-rights provisions, she writes. For example, the bill "allows for so-called 'informed consent' provisions, which provide women with propaganda designed to dissuade them from abortion and promote adoption," according to Steiger. She concludes that bills such as the Prevention First Act supported by President-elect Obama, should be the focus of efforts (Steiger, RH Reality Check, 1/5).

~ "26 Reasons Pro-Choice People Should Be Happy," Nancy Keenan, Huffington Post blogs: Abortion-rights supporters have "26 new reasons to celebrate" because of the net gain of 26 abortion-rights advocates from the previous Congress, Keenan -- president of NARAL Pro-Choice America -- writes. She adds that "pro-choice policies reflect the public's call for a change in the tone of the debate over important issues" and that the "focus is on commonsense, common-ground solutions that will make a difference in the lives of women and their families." Keenan adds that the "pro-choice movement finds itself on the cusp of a tremendous opportunity: not only to make significant headway into reversing some of George W. Bush's worst policies, but also to start advancing pro-choice initiatives on a national level," like investing in more family planning, providing comprehensive sex education to teenagers, ensuring the preservation of Roe v. Wade and increasing access to reproductive services for low-income women (Keenan, Huffington Post blogs, 1/5).


~ "Dominican Women Play (Abortion) Doctor," Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon's Broadsheet: Clark-Flory "consider[s] the extreme lengths women will go in order to obtain an abortion" and examines a recent New York Times article about studies on women from "stridently antiabortion cultures" who terminate their pregnancies through "desperate and dangerous means" that "can all amount to a very dangerous game of doctor." She mentions the illegal use of the prescription drug misoprostol, which is FDA-approved as an abortifacient when taken with mifepristone. Clark-Flory concludes that Planned Parenthood intends to use the study to develop "a new language and framework for sexual and reproductive health ... and ultimately improve the sexual and reproductive education and health care that [women] receive" (Clark-Flory, Salon's Broadsheet, 1/5).


~ "Can You Hear Me Yet?" Cecile Richards, Huffington Post blogs: "At this point, it's hard to imagine how much more data the government and Congress need to collect to come to the conclusion that just telling kids to not have sex isn't working," Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, writes. New reports confirm "the failure of abstinence-only sex education programs, which have been one of the best funded far-right programs under the Bush administration." She cites a recent study on virginity pledges that compares "the health outcomes for young women who pledge to remain virgins until marriage ... as opposed to young women who don't pledge." She continues, "The data indicates that 82% of young women taking the pledge of virginity end up breaking the promise making them no different than their peers for engaging in sexual activity," adding, "However, there were significant differences in the risky sexual behavior among the 'pledge takers.'" She writes, "The more that abstinence-only programs stress the failure rates of condoms and contraception, the less likely young people are to protect themselves against pregnancy and infection," noting that CDC reported that "one in four teenage girls in America has a sexually transmitted infection -- and one in two African-American teen girls" has an STI -- which "should be reason enough for Congress to end funding for a program that promotes far right ideology and at the same time gives bad or no information to help teens protect their health." She concludes, "Abstinence-only [education] has been an unmitigated disaster -- our New Year's resolution as a country should be to take teens' health seriously and to invest funding in comprehensive sex education that teaches teens about abstinence as well as contraception, healthy communication, responsible decision making and prevention of sexually transmitted infections" (Richards, Huffington Post blogs, 12/29/08).

~ "Midwives Deliver," Jennifer Block, RH Reality Check: The maternity care system in the U.S. "needs to be turned upside down," Block writes, adding, "Midwives should be caring for the majority of pregnant women, and physicians should continue to handle high-risk cases, complications and emergencies." The high cost of childbirth in the U.S. "hasn't translated into high quality," and "we are overspending and underserving women and families," she continues. Block writes that U.S. hospitals "aren't following evidence-based best practices," adding that the "most cost-effective, health-promoting maternity care for normal, healthy women is midwife-led in and out of hospital." President-elect Barack Obama "could be, among so many other firsts, the first birth-friendly president," Block says, concluding that "America needs better birth care, and midwives can deliver it" (Block, RH Reality Check, 1/6).

~ "Viagra for Afghan Patriarchs, To Hell with Women," Our Bodies Ourselves blog: The blog entry responds to a recent Washington Post story about the CIA distributing Viagra to Afghan tribal leaders, calling the action "revolting news" and "problematic." The entry writes, "Consider the power trip" that could result from Afghan village patriarchs being told the pill could "'put them back in an authoritative position'" (Our Bodies Ourselves blog, 12/29/08).

~ "Coitus Interceptus," William Saletan, Slate's Human Nature: "Apparently the men in Rome are having trouble understanding some nuances of the female reproductive system," Saletan writes, referring to the "Vatican's latest pronouncement on fertility technology," which came in the form of Dignitas Personae -- "an instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith." The document covers several topics, including one "that calls for rebuttal right away" -- in the "section on forms of 'interception and contragestation,'" he writes, adding that "the problem with the CDF's statement" is that levonorgestrel, or the "interceptive" it refers to, "is chemically identical to the best-known contraceptive: the pill." He continues that "the assertion of an anti-implantation effect is theoretically unsound," and an analysis by James Trussell -- "the world's leading expert on levonorgestrel" -- confirmed that the "anti-ovulation effects wipe out any data suggesting a possible anti-implantation effect." He writes, "The Vatican document, still referring to [Plan B], says that 'anyone who seeks to prevent the implantation of an embryo which may possibly have been conceived and who therefore either requests or prescribes such a pharmaceutical, generally intends abortion,'" continuing, "But a woman who requests [Plan B] doesn't necessarily seek to prevent" a pregnancy -- the "actual intent is to avert a pregnancy at the earliest stages of the process, which happens to be ovulation." Saletan concludes, "The perceptive analytical framework established by Dignitas Personae, combined with the best scientific evidence and analysis, clearly implies that [Plan B is a] contraceptiv[e], not [an] interceptiv[e]" (Saletan, Slate's Human Nature, 1/5).

~ "2008 Top Ten Wins for Women's Health," Beth Fredrick, RH Reality Check: Fredrick lists ten significant "wins" in 2008 for women's health advocates, including the election of abortion-rights supporter President-elect Barack Obama; a pledge by Latin American and Caribbean health and education ministers at a Mexico City conference to invest in comprehensive sex education and strengthen the region's HIV/AIDS response; and voters' rejection of abortion-related ballot initiatives in South Dakota, California and Colorado. In addition, Fredrick also lists India's introduction of the female condom and the rejection of federal funding for abstinence-only sex education programs by 25 states (Fredrick, RH Reality Check, 12/24/08).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. 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.

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