Blogs Comment On Obama Health Reform Plans, Catholic Bioethics Document, Other Topics

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 17 Dec 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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

~ "Health Care Choices," Kirsten Moore, Huffington Post blogs: Although women's health advocates have "much to celebrate" about President-elect Barack Obama's announcement that Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) -- Obama's nominee for HHS secretary -- will direct a new White House Office of Health Reform, there is "one possible hiccup," Moore writes. "Like many others, Senator Daschle has pointed to the Federal Employee Health Benefits program as a possible mechanism for closing the health insurance coverage gap for almost 46 million Americans," Moore writes. "Unfortunately, for almost twenty-five years, the federal government has banned federal employees from choosing a health care plan that covered abortion," she says. The Democratically controlled Congress in the early 1990s lifted the ban, and in 1994, "178 FEHB plans out of 345 offered abortion coverage," according to Moore. However the ban was reinstated when Republicans gained majorities in Congress. Moore concludes, "Even if we disagree on abortion, singling out one aspect of health care coverage for discrimination is a practice that should not continue under the new Congress and Administration. Providing a range of health coverage allows individuals to make the best decision for their families and their individual circumstances" (Moore, Huffington Post, 12/15).

~ "Unhealthy Coverage: How the Media Loses Its Way," Sarah Seltzer, RH Reality Check: Seltzer discusses a recent study by Pew Research and the Kaiser Family Foundation that found that only about 3.6% of media coverage is devoted to health care-related topics. "Compounding the small attention devoted to health, the breakdown within existing health coverage shows a tendency to focus on controversial or sensational aspects of health issues, leaving vital policy information behind," Seltzer writes. According to Seltzer, reproductive health advocates in particular "often see the public heath crises caused by a lack of reproductive health care submerged beneath the kind of pitched battles or titillating stories the media loves." She writes, "In our scandal and controversy-oriented news culture, reproductive health issues are treated as controversial flashpoints or political footballs rather than genuine public and personal health crises." For example, media coverage of the proposed HHS conscience rule has focused the discussion on "the consciences and internal struggles of health care providers, rather than the difficulty women have accessing proper care," Seltzer writes. She cites as an example an opinion piece by Melinda Hennenberger in Slate last month that "spun a piece about the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation that would expand women's access to reproductive care and abortion, into an assault on the moral consciences of Catholics." Seltzer writes, "Presto -- a bill meant to protect women's health becomes an ideological war on the Catholic church. A juicier story, but a misleading one." She adds that in covering the issue this way, "the media does more damage than it can possibly be aware of." According to Seltzer, "There is a market for sensible, factual health coverage because it affects people's lives." She concludes, "Framing reproductive health issues from a public health perspective, and boosting coverage of health care policy, are absolutely crucial to changing the frame on reproductive rights back to what it's really about: women's access to the care they need" (Seltzer, RH Reality Check, 12/15).

~ "New Vatican Instruction on Bioethics: 'Digntas Personae,'" Judie Brown, American Life League blog: In response to the recently released Vatican document on bioethics, Dignitas Personae, Brown writes that the American Life League "appreciate[s] the fact that the Vatican has made it clear that 'conception' ... refers to all human beings irrespective of the method of reproduction employed." The document clarifies the Roman Catholic Church's positions on in vitro fertilization, embryo adoption and related issues regarding the use of embryos. Brown writes that the document is a "welcome statement that clarifies, in nearly all cases, the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding the human person, his identity, his value and his integrity." She continues, "We are grateful as well that the Vatican has drawn attention to the 'interceptive' and 'contragestative' actions of many so-called contraceptive chemicals and devices, making it crystal clear that 'the use of means of interception and contragestation fall within the sin of abortion and are gravely immoral'" (Brown, American Life League blog, 12/12).

~ "Catholic Church Again Refuses to Support Contemporary Families," Jon O'Brien, RH Reality Check: "It remains difficult to reconcile the Vatican's self-avowed pro-life approach with the rejection of in-vitro fertilization and embryo freezing, not to mention the condemnation of the potential of stem-cell research," O'Brien writes in response to the Vatican's release last week of Dignitas Personae, the new document on bioethics. He continues, "As our scientists use ground-breaking technology to find treatments to diseases that have endured for centuries, they need our support, not the condemnation put forth by the Vatican." Although there have been "public battles with science and scientists over the centuries," O'Brien writes that "various elements of the Catholic Church have a long and well respected reputation for supporting scientific endeavor." O'Brien adds, "We need that aspect of the church to step forward now and show the world that Catholicism and scientific progress can work in harmony to help develop the cures we need to deal with disease and infertility" (O'Brien, RH Reality Check, 12/16).

~ "Obama: Ratify the Women's Convention Soon," Marjorie Cohn, Huffington Post blogs: "Nearly 30 years after President Jimmy Carter signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the United States remains the only democracy that refuses to ratify the most significant treaty guaranteeing gender equality," Cohn -- a Thomas Jefferson School of Law professor and the president of the National Lawyers Guild -- writes. President-elect Barack Obama "should not hesitate to send CEDAW to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification," as he has said he supports ratification of the treaty and has "promised increased enforcement by his Office of Civil Rights to ensure effective protection from sex discrimination." She writes, "CEDAW, in effect, mandates that states' parties take affirmative action to ensure equality for women in the areas of employment, education, health care and family planning, economic, political, cultural, social and legal relations. CEDAW specifies that temporary measures taken to achieve equality will not constitute discrimination." In the U.S., "[m]ore than 120 organizations, including the AARP, the League of Women Voters, Amnesty International and the World Federalist Association support ratification," according to Cohn. She writes that opposition to the treaty "reflects the ideological agenda and considerable clout of the religious right and the corporate establishment. Many opposed to ratification seek to protect the large corporations -- the backbone of U.S. capitalism -- from having to enact equality provisions that would imperil the bottom line." Cohn concludes, "It took nearly 150 years for women to gain the right to vote in this country. There is no principled reason our government should resist full equality for women. The United States must climb on board and ratify" CEDAW (Cohn, Huffington Post, 12/12).

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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