Blogs Comment On Health Care Reform, Protests To Afghan 'Rape Law,' Obama Nominees, Other Topics

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Sexual Health / STDs;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 20 Apr 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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

~ "What's At Stake for Women in Health Care Reform," Marcia Greenberger, Huffington Post blogs: All women in the U.S. "should have a guarantee of high quality, affordable" health care coverage, Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, writes. "Health care reform that results in accessible care for women means making sure that everyone has access to affordable coverage and health care, and ending unfair insurance practices," she writes. "To meet the needs of women, health care reform must result in coverage that is affordable -- meaning that it must include income-based subsidies for health care premiums and all out-of-pocket expenses; elimination of annual or lifetime caps on services and prescriptions; and a strengthened and expanded Medicaid program," Greenberger continues, adding that reform must also "provide comprehensive health and prescription drug benefits with coverage for a full range of health services, including wellness, prevention and reproductive health services." Greenberger concludes that "millions of Americans simply can't afford to wait for meaningful reform that will bring a guarantee of quality, affordable comprehensive health care for us all" (Greenberger, Huffington Post blogs, 4/16).

~"Three Cheers for Afghan Women," Nicholas Kristof, New York Times' "On the Ground": Kristof writes that he is "awed by the courage of those 300 Afghan women who endured stones, jeers and threats" in the country's capital, Kabul, to protest a new law that applies only to Shiites and "obliges women to sleep with their husbands on demand." Kristof adds that he "can't imagine the guts it would take to be a [minority] woman walking with a banner demanding equal rights through an enraged mob of stone-throwing, spitting fundamentalists." Although Kristof writes that he is "enormously impressed by the courage of these women," he adds that he "do[es] worry about a backlash," as Afghans are "very nationalistic" and the protesters "were denounced as pawns of Christians and foreigners." He concludes that Afghanistan "can't develop economically and achieve stability so long as girls are kept home and women are mostly barred from the work force" (Kristof, "On the Ground," New York Times, 4/15).

~ "Don't Give the Right Wing a Win on Obama's Nominees," Nancy Keenan, Huffington Post blogs: "The blogosphere is abuzz with stories of GOP obstructionism of some of President Obama's nominees to crucial posts," Keenan writes, adding, "Random and ridiculous reasons have been given for various nominees," particularly judicial nominee David Hamilton; assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Council nominee Dawn Johnsen; and HHS secretary nominee Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D). Keenan continues that antiabortion-rights advocates are "attacking" these three nominees "simply because they've taken pro-choice positions," adding that the antiabortion-rights advocates are "engag[ing] in an all out effort to use anti-choice rhetoric and the threat of a filibuster." She writes, "If they succeed, they will be emboldened to shred the credibility of future nominees simply to appease their right-wing base." Keenan asks, "[C]ould it be that anti-choice activists are opposing someone solely based on pro-choice positions?" She concludes, "The right wing has made these nominees their test case on how to derail President Obama's efforts to put qualified persons in key posts," adding that groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America aim to "make sure they fail this test" (Keenan, Huffington Post blogs, 4/16).

~ "Zero Tolerance for Maternal Mortality," Abdelhadi Eltahir, RH Reality Check: "Maternal and newborn care is one of the biggest challenges in international health," and it is "unacceptable -- and in many ways shameful -- for the international health and development community" to allow preventable illnesses to cause maternal deaths, Eltahir -- senior maternal and newborn care adviser at Pathfinder International -- writes in a blog entry. According to Eltahir, the "availability of emergency blood is not commonly practiced in the developing world -- and sub-Saharan Africa in particular -- due to cultural, physical and/or resource barriers." He continues, "But with the right systems and training, many of these barriers are addressed and emergency blood made available." Eltahir writes that it is "imperative that we rededicate ourselves to ending maternal mortality." He notes that "ensuring maternal and newborn survival" calls for "broad ranging and innovative approaches," including increasing access to family planning, "managing emergency obstetric care and involving communities in identifying and addressing their own community health needs." He writes that along with more attention and funding directed toward "quality health services," increased pressure on leaders is needed "to highlight this as a major issue going forward." He concludes, "I look forward to a new time of zero tolerance and more women being saved through such simple, yet vital, acts as accessible blood" (Eltahir, RH Reality Check, 4/16).

~ "Teens and Sex Education at the Doctor's Office," Deborah Kotz, U.S. News & World Report's On Women: Some parents whose children receive abstinence-only sex education at schools are beginning to "rely on a gynecologist to answer the kinds of questions about sex that their daughters may not feel comfortable asking or that they themselves may not know the answers to," Kotz writes, citing a recent Houston Chronicle article about Texas parents who are using gynecologists to help educate their teenage daughters. Kotz writes that "[u]sing a trusted gynecologist, preferably one who specializes in adolescent medicine, as a resource for health information is probably a wise choice, given the other sex-education options teens are turning to." She continues that teens' friends "can be a wealth of misinformation," as can many Web sites. Kotz discusses the findings of a study from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital that found that many popular sexual health Web sites for teens include information "often fraught with errors and omissions," including insufficient or inaccurate information about purchasing emergency contraception, side effects from birth control pills, safety of intrauterine devices and when to begin Pap smears (Kotz, U .S. News & World Report's On Women, 4/15).

~ "Rape Law in Afghanistan Goes Down," Taylor Marsh, Huffington Post blogs: "The Shiite feminists in Afghanistan won this one for themselves" when they "took to the streets" and "stood up amidst a mob of men ... to stand up for their rights," Marsh, political analyst and commentator, writes in a blog entry about reports on CNN.com that Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans to change a recent law that critics say legalizes rape within Shiite marriages. According to Marsh, the law spurred an "outcry raucous from across the globe," including a statement from President Obama that legalized rape is "abhorrent" and similar concerns from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. However, Marsh writes, "nothing could have made a bigger difference than the women standing up for themselves, 300 to 500, taking to the streets protesting their life as property." She continues that the women's protests, "manifested in President Karzai changing the law, makes their actions the stuff of heroes" (Marsh, Huffington Post blogs, 4/16).

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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