Blogs Comment On 'Conscience' Rule Lawsuit, Prevention First Act, STI Report, Other Topics

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice;  Sexual Health / STDs;  Abortion
Article Date: 19 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PST

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

~ "Midnight Cowboy Part 2: Taking Bush's HHS Regulation to Court," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: Jacobson's blog entry responds to the lawsuit filed on Thursday by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America seeking to block implementation of the HHS provider "conscience" rule. According to Jacobson, the rule "seriously jeopardizes patients' access to health care information and services." She writes that an injunction would "prevent the rules from going into effect" and provide "protection for patients until the Obama administration can initiate the regulatory process required to reverse the Bush rule." Jacobson adds that the rule "fails to clearly define 'abortion' (many believe purposefully so) allowing individual providers to equate any form of contraception with abortion, going far beyond the legal and medical definitions of the term." According to Jacobson, the rule would jeopardize laws in place in 27 states that require health insurance plans that cover prescription drugs to "provide equitable coverage for contraception," as it "extends sweeping protections to health care entities who seek to restrict coverage for reproductive health care" (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 1/15).

~ "At Last, Prevention First," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch blog: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) began the new Senate session by introducing the Prevention First Act, which "signals the seriousness with which" President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress are "pushing toward the common ground goals Americans seek, namely the goal of preventing unwanted pregnancies," Page writes. According to Page, the bill "is designed to increase access to both contraception and comprehensive sex education, as well as reduce unwanted pregnancies." She continues, "The legislation will hopefully end the reckless Bush years which pushed ideology over tried and true methods to address the problem" of unintended pregnancies. She notes that "further proof" of the failure of the Bush administration's policies comes in the form of recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that show an increase in both the teen birth rates and STI rates. According to Page, "When Bush took office he was handed the lowest unintended pregnancy and abortion rates in decades," however he "discarded the policies" that led to these rates, replacing comprehensive sex education with abstinence-only education. She adds, "Bush's HHS tried to redefine contraception as abortion." However, the Prevention First Act "contains an array of remedies and undoes some of the damage" cause by Bush administration policies, Page continues. She writes that it also puts college health centers back in the discount drug pricing program for contraception -- "a cost neutral way to improve contraceptive access for the group of women in greatest need of it." The legislation also expands funding for Title X "to a level more appropriate to the swelling need," she writes. Page also adds that the legislation would "ensure that contraceptives are included in all health plans that cover prescription drugs," reaffirm "science and medicine as the sources of policy" and set "comprehensive sex education programs as the standard" (Page, Birth Control Watch, 1/14).

~ "Rise in Sexually Transmitted Diseases Poses Biggest Risk to Young Women," Deborah Kotz, U.S. News & World Report's On Women: The new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- which found that sexually transmitted infections are increasing and that "women bear the brunt of the burden" -- is "sobering news," Kotz writes in a blog entry. She adds, "We pay a hefty toll for such ills as gonorrhea and chlamydia -- which go undiagnosed half the time -- in the form of lifelong infertility." In addition, women, "especially black women, account for the highest rates of both of these diseases," according to Kotz. To avoid contracting an STI, women should avoid "unprotected sex with a new partner -- many of us still don't insist that men wear condoms," she writes, adding that women younger than age 27 also can receive the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil, which protects against cervical cancer. CDC also recommends "chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under 26 and supports screening high-risk sexually active women for gonorrhea," according to Kotz, who adds that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends HIV tests for all women (Kotz, U.S. News & World Report's On Women, 1/13).

~ "Meeting Women on Their Terms," Joan Malin, Huffington Post: The "importance of community and conversation cannot be overestimated" and is "one of the best tools" in public health, Malin, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of New York City, writes in a blog entry in response to a study released earlier this month that found self-induced abortions are common among Hispanic immigrant women. According to Malin, the "main point" of the study is that immigrant women "feel alienated" from the health care system in New York City because of "racism, inaccessibility and language barriers." In addition, the study "confirms a long-held belief in the reproductive rights movement: that regardless of what procedures, medications, etc. are legal or not, when women feel they have no other options, they will take matters into their own hands," Malin says. She adds that health workers "should be grateful that women do have a community to turn to" but that they should make sure the community "has the correct and best information available" on sexual and reproductive health by "making sure" that outreach, community and education efforts "reach" immigrant women "on their terms, with the information and resources that are best for their health" (Malin, Huffington Post, 1/14).

~ "The Reasonableness of the Pro-Life Case for Life," National Right to Life blog: The conclusion of a recent Forbes opinion piece that the abortion debate is "resistant to reason" because it is "akin to religious belief" is "wrong on so many levels," a NRL blog entry says. According to the blog, "faith and reason are like two blades of a scissors: both are necessary for the scissors to work properly." The blog continues that "anti-life intellectuals can and do embarrass the Abortion Establishment who want to be seen as mainstream 'moderates'" by "pointing out the logical conclusion that follows when, based on the most shoddy and morally incoherent reasoning, the unborn are robbed of their right to legal protection." The blog concludes that "[t]o come full circle pro-lifers ... share a common faith: the conviction ... that there is no moral, ethical or scientifically coherent argument to exclude the unborn 'from the community for whom we are responsible'" (National Right to Life blog, 1/13).

~ "Should You Stop Taking Birth Control Pills if You're Over 35?", Deborah Kotz, U.S. News & World Report's On Women: There is a "dearth of research on the long-term use of contraceptives by women," Kotz writes in a blog entry, adding that a recent paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology argues that there are not "well-designed trials looking specifically at how birth control pills and other hormonal products affect a woman's risk of developing heart disease." Although a woman's risk of having a heart attack in her 30s or 40s is "extremely low, heart disease death rates have recently risen in women ages 35 to 44, and no one knows exactly why," according to Kotz. She adds, "This could be due to an increase in obesity, sedentary lifestyle and smoking, all of which raise heart disease risk." However, it also could be "because more middle-aged women are using hormonal contraceptives today than ever before," Kotz writes, adding that the paper's co-author Noel Bairey Merz says it is a "resounding call for more research." Although Andrew Kaunitz of the Florida College of Medicine says that healthy, nonsmoking women can continue hormonal contraceptives until their early 50s, some women who are already at an increased risk of heart disease because of other factors should consider alternatives, Kotz writes, concluding, "Of course, we're all still waiting for that contraceptive pill for men. Perhaps in my daughter's or granddaughter's lifetime" (Kotz, U.S. News & World Report's On Women, 1/13).

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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