Blogs Comment On Seeking 'Common Ground' In Abortion Debate, State Legislative Trends, Other Topics

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 22 Apr 2009 - 8:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

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

~ "Proudly Part of the Problem," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: "[M]any veteran leaders in the 'pro-life' movement are immovably stuck in their positions" and "appear deeply invested in rehashing the same, seemingly eternal arguments, in continuing what ... seems like a tedious fight," Page writes. "Too many of the most committed people, and here, the pro-choice side is not immune, feel that anything the opponent agrees to must be suspect," she writes. Page recounts a series of exchanges with antiabortion-rights blogger Jill Stanek, adding that Stanek and some other antiabortion-rights bloggers are "apparently so invested in continuing the fight that they won't budge." Page writes that she "suspects their intransigence is based not just on morality, but self-interest as well. If the vitriol isn't high enough they worry their base might drift away." President Obama's proposed "common ground" approach to reducing the need for abortion "will come about because of people who want real solutions" and "who believe we deserve a better national dialogue and better leadership on this issue," Page says, concluding, "We've finally got an administration willing to moderate a productive discussion. It's time to get the hecklers out of [the] room and get on with the work" (Page, Birth Control Watch, 4/16).

~ Former USAID Population Officials "As[k] Obama for Huge Spike in Contraceptives Funding," Paul Bedard, U.S. News and World Report's Washington Whispers: Five former directors of USAID's Population and Reproductive Health Program said in a report released Tuesday that "it's time for the United States to get back into the international family planning business," Bedard writes. Supporters of the organization are "urging President Obama to triple the annual budget to $1.5 billion and end the Republican-backed 'gag rule' that barred U.S. assistance to groups engaged in abortion-related services," Bedard writes. The report says, "To reassert U.S. leadership in family planning, pledges of renewed commitment from the White House will be a galvanizing force. But the words must be backed by action. It will be essential to reverse the global gag rule restriction as soon as possible." According to Bedard, the "request is a strong signal that international family planning experts expect Obama to continue reversing Bush-era antiabortion initiatives and fund international efforts. It also comes as donors are drying up for the program" (Bedard, U.S. News and World Report's Washington Whispers, 4/17).

~ "State Trends: Abortion, Personhood, Sex Ed and STIs," Rachel Gold/Elizabeth Nash, RH Reality Check: "With the legislative year well underway, some interesting trends are beginning to emerge in a number of states," according to Gold and Nash of the Guttmacher Institute. As of last month, "a total of 704 measures related to sexual and reproductive health had been introduced ... and 11 new laws had been enacted in five states," they write. Of the laws passed, one "allows the provision of treatment for sexually transmitted infections for a patient's partner (Utah), while two increase access to emergency contraception (Utah and Virginia)," Gold and Nash write, adding that the "remaining eight laws are all related to abortion." They continue that there are "three major new trends emerging" related to reproductive health. First, lawmakers in six states have introduced measures this year that would declare a fetus a person from the moment of conception. According to Gold and Nash, this "strategy is being pursued by an emerging far-right wing of the antiabortion movement, in explicit rejection of what is perceived as a willingness on the part of some mainstream organizations to push for restrictions that would reduce abortion rather than ban it entirely." Although the proposed laws "all seek a similar end, the measures would take different routes to achieving their goal," Gold and Nash write, adding that "all of the measures would affect contraception as well as abortion." The second emerging trend involves requiring that schools provide medically accurate sex education; 20 states this year have introduced 36 bills related to the issue. Third, more states have introduced legislation allowing physicians treating patients with STIs to write a prescription for the patient's partner, even if the physician has not seen the partner. According to Gold and Nash, lawmakers in eight states have introduced such measures, which align with 2006 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Gold/Nash, RH Reality Check, 4/20).

~ "Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Have Not Reduced Teen Pregnancy," Jane Fonda, Huffington Post blogs: "It's about time we make the well-being of our young people more important than ideology and politics" by "advocating for effective sex education," Fonda, an actress and founder of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, writes. Fonda writes that while Georgia in the past two years has received $22.4 million in federal funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, the state ranks 10th in the U.S. in teen birth rates at 54.2 per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19. "The persistent status of Georgia among the top 10 worst states for reproductive and sexual health outcomes in teens illustrates the shortcomings of a policy that insists on teaching abstinence-only until marriage as the core sex education strategy," she writes. Fonda says that previous presidential administrations "have wasted opportunities to use our government resources to teach our young people how to make good decisions about their health." She concludes, "It is time ... we advocate for policies and programs capable of addressing the root causes of adolescent pregnancy and teach our young people the skills they need to live healthy, productive lives. Our future depends on it" (Fonda, Huffington Post blogs, 4/17).

~ "Women and Children First," Sarah Posner, The American Prospect blogs: "Readers interested in the challenges of achieving sexual equality and in the dangers of religious fundamentalism ... will find such a convergence" in Michelle Goldberg's new book "The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World" and Kathryn Joyce's "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement," Posner writes. According to Posner, Goldberg's book is an account of how "U.S. aid policy ... came under the sway of the sexually puritanical demands of the American religious right, to ruinous effects." Goldberg argues in the book that the "resulting unavailability of safe abortion and family planning services, combined with the devastation of HIV/AIDS and other disasters, wreaked havoc ... on personal lives, economic prospects and therefore political stability," Posner says. She adds that Goldberg's book "serves, if nothing else, as a wake-up call" that "reproductive justice is not an outpost 'women's' issue; it's essential for the well-being of the planet," offering examples of "how religious belief structures -- local and imported -- have crushed the everyday lives and future well-being of women across the globe." Meanwhile, Joyce's book "puts the American fundamentalism that has fueled Goldberg's story under the microscope." Joyce provides a look at the "fringe movement" known as Quiverfull -- which is part of a broader conservative evangelicalism movement -- that "is best known for its insistence that followers have as many children -- 10, 12, 15 -- as possible." According to Posner, "The question that goes unanswered by these religious fundamentalists is how their concern over policing the lives of women and children fits with the biblical mandate to help the poor." Standing alone, each book "represent[s] an invaluable contribution to understanding how religious fundamentalism still stands in the way of sexual justice," she writes, concluding, "Read together, they are an urgent call to dismantle fundamentalism's hold on our politics and our policy-making" (Posner, The American Prospect blogs, 4/17).

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.

© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations