Blogs Comment On Federal Judicial Vacancies, Health Insurance For Women

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Abortion
Article Date: 28 Oct 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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

• "The Bench in Purgatory," Doug Kendall, Slate: The "slow pace" of President Obama's judicial nominations is "part of the problem" with the high number of federal vacancies, but the "larger issue is a new form of obstructionism in the Senate," as only three of Obama's 22 lower court nominees have been confirmed, Kendall writes. Republicans in the Senate seem "prepared to take the partisan war over the courts into uncharted territory" by delaying "up-or-down [floor] votes" on the confirmations of "even the most qualified and uncontroversial" nominees, he writes, adding that the GOP's "strategy is to hold these uncontroversial nominees hostage as pawns in the larger war over [Obama's] agenda and the direction of the federal judiciary." Such a strategy is "unprecedented and dangerous," as there are 95 vacancies in federal courts and "the last thing we need is for existing seats in overworked courts to go unfilled," Kendall writes. "If this continues, it will worsen an already serious problem of vacancies on the federal courts" and "discourage from ever entering the confirmation process precisely the type of nominees both parties should want," he continues, concluding that "those of us who care deeply about a well-functioning judicial branch should work now to stop this new form of obstructionism" (Kendall, Slate, 10/26).
• "More Part-Time Jobs? Not Without Health Care Reform," Ria Misra, Politics Daily 's "Woman Up" : While she "would have liked to see the U.S. government borrow a page from the British handbook offering workers more flexible work arrangements," Misra writes that "until we've cracked health insurance reform, more part-time jobs means more economic trouble for women," who "lose big" when they purchase health insurance individually. Most part-time employees who are not offered health insurance through their employer are either forced to purchase health coverage individually or remain uninsured, Misra writes, noting that the individual insurance market "is a brutal place for women." Gender discrimination in health insurance pricing is prohibited in only 12 states, and the National Women's Law Center says that a 25-year-old woman will pay anywhere between 6% and 45% more for insurance that is identical to her male counterpart. "Women's higher costs don't even take into account the number of insurance plans that refuse to cover certain aspects of health care, such as maternity care," Misra writes. She continues that she would be "delighted to see men and women alike be able to choose more flexible work arrangements" because it "would open up more possibilities for how families divide up households and childcare duties." However, "without health coverage options that don't depend on the whims of insurance companies, ... these new employment options wouldn't offer Americans much of a choice at all," she concludes (Misra, "Woman Up," Politics Daily, 10/26).
• "Dr. Tiller Murdered Again by NBC's 'Law and Order'," Charlotte Taft, RH Reality Check: Members of the Abortion Care Network are "furious and deeply offended" about a recent episode of NBC's "Law and Order" that featured a story line based on the murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, according to Taft, director of ACN. She adds that "no matter how his murder was 'ripped from the headlines,' it was much too soon and too raw to turn it into a piece of popular culture." For many of the independent abortion providers who make up ACN, Tiller "was mentor, teacher, friend -- he was known in our circles as 'St. George' because he embodied principles of goodness, kindness, respect and faith -- the best in us." According to Taft, "NBC concocted a dreadful hybrid that bears no resemblance to this truly amazing doctor. And they concocted a story that bears no resemblance to the true complexity of the issues involved in abortion, let alone late abortion." The show featured the "heart-wrenching testimony of a woman whose values told her that the best way to honor herself and the doomed life she was carrying late in pregnancy was to bring the pregnancy to term and be there as her baby died," but what it "left out was the equally compelling, equally real, equally heart-wrenching testimony of real women whose values told them that the best way to honor themselves and the doomed life they carried late in pregnancy was to end that life in the care of a compassionate physician and staff," Taft says. She concludes that ACN "brings the experience and voice of independent abortion providers and the women we serve into the national conversation. This kind of truly fictitious television reveals just how needed that voice is" (Taft, RH Reality Check, 10/26).

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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