Blogs Comment On Souter Retirement, Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Other Topics

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Abortion;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 06 May 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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

~ "Finding a Voice, Not Just a Vote, for Women's Rights on the Court," Kay Steiger, RH Reality Check: Supreme Court Justice David Souter's announcement last week that he will retire in June marks the "first time a pro-choice president has had the opportunity to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court" since former President Clinton appointed Justice Stephen Breyer in 1994, Steiger writes. Although Souter was appointed by former Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990, he has "maintained a position as an ally of reproductive choice during his time on the Court," Steiger writes. According to Steiger, the "lists of prospective nominees already circulated have a lot of pro-choice women that top the list." However, Steiger adds that there is "reason to caution the appointment of sitting judges," noting that Souter was a "sitting justice when he was named to the Supreme Court" and that "[a]lthough he was appointed by a fairly conservative president, he has turned into a reliable liberal vote on the Court." Steiger adds that some "view an academic as a safer choice, since they tend to have articulated a more extensive range of public thoughts about judicial philosophy and constitutional interpretation." Steiger notes that "once Obama selects the nominee, he will still have to have that person confirmed," adding, "With potentially 60 Democratic votes, Obama may be blessed with a smooth confirmation process, but social conservatives have already begun to object to the nomination process" (Steiger, RH Reality Check, 5/4).

~ "Out of Touch at the Taxpayer's Expense," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: Legislators in Missouri and Montana "seem to have missed the thousands of articles penned in the last few weeks about a flood of Americans turning to birth control as a way to insure their economic survival in uncertain times" and instead have taken steps to "scale back access to contraception for the citizens who need it most," Page writes. Missouri legislators approved an amendment allowing pharmacies to refuse to stock emergency contraceptives, which should "come as no surprise" because Missouri lawmakers "have been in the vanguard of restricting access to pregnancy prevention for years," Page writes. Meanwhile, in Montana Republican lawmakers have limited access to contraception by eliminating coverage for birth control from state insurance programs for adolescents. According to Page, the "decision is not only bizarre given the fiscal climate ... it's also crazy given recent trends in teen pregnancy in the state," with data showing a 9% increase in Montana's teen birth rate in 2006, which was high "enough to alarm officials at the state's Department of Public Health and Human Services" (Page, Birth Control Watch, 5/1).

~ "For the President's Suggestion Box: Nominate a Woman," Marcia Greenberger, Huffington Post blogs: President Obama should "nominate a woman" to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who announced last week that he will retire in June, Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, writes. "We have clearly moved past the days when one woman on the highest court in the land is enough," Greenberger says, adding, "Having another woman on the Supreme Court is important." She writes that the importance of appointing another woman to the Court was "nowhere clearer than in an oral argument last week in Safford Unified School District v. Redding," in which a 13-year-old girl and her mother sued the school district because the girl was strip-searched. According to Greenberger, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the only justice who "appeared to comprehend the humiliation and indignity a teenaged girl would have suffered by being forced to strip ... in front of school officials," Greenberger writes. She concludes, "When there is only one woman on the Supreme Court, it's not just that it doesn't look right, it's that the Court can't decide right" (Greenberger, Huffington Post blogs, 5/1).

~ "The National Day To Prevent Teen Pregnancy," Marian Wright Edelman, Huffington Post blogs: A National Center for Health Statistics report released in March found that the teen birth rate is "again on the rise," which makes the eighth annual National Day To Prevent Teen Pregnancy on May 6 "all the more important," Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, writes. The day aims to "test what teenagers know about teen pregnancy and raise awareness about the facts -- and to remind them that despite what they may think, 'it can happen to them.'" Edelman writes that the "sobering statistics" on teen pregnancy "contain important news for parents of teens about how they can prevent pregnancies." She concludes that the National Day To Prevent Teen Pregnancy "is one important way to raise awareness -- and hopefully encourage more conversation on the topic between parents and children at home" (Edelman, Huffington Post blogs, 5/4).

~ "No Cop-Outs: 37 Years Ago, 'Maude' Got the Abortion Experience Right," Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check: Marcotte reports that although 1970s televisions shows, including "Maude," joked about pregnancy and abortion, she "doubt[s] anyone would dare put [those] joke[s] onscreen these days." Marcotte writes, "You'd think that something that happens to over a million women a year would merit more than one portrayal in the 37 years since Maude terminated her pregnancy, but in TV Land, abortion is rarer than coffee shop employees who can afford enormous Manhattan apartments." Although abortion is addressed on TV shows, the women with unintended pregnancies typically are depicted as "pathetic" or "injured or silenced dramatically," according to Marcotte. She writes that these "undeveloped characters ... exist mainly so that male doctors can wring their hands about the morality of abortion." Marcotte adds, "When it comes to main characters, if the possibility of abortion comes up, it's dismissed as a real option" and "we learn that decent women would sooner die than share a waiting room with the sort of sluts who get abortions." Marcotte cites as an exception an episode of "Sex and the City." In the episode, one main character contemplates an abortion while two other leads discuss their previous abortions. Marcotte writes that in "both cases, we learn it was absolutely the right decision for them, and it's also implied that it's unfair that men aren't expected to handle the fact of abortion realistically" but "they still didn't have the courage to show a character making the decision in the here and now." She continues that it's "shocking how different" the show "Maude" portrays abortion "than most subsequent portrayals of abortion." According to Marcotte, Maude "isn't broken or pathetic" and "doesn't need outrageous extenuating circumstances to 'deserve' her abortion." Marcotte adds that Maude is "treated with the respect accorded an adult who has every right to decide her own fate" (Marcotte, RH Reality Check, 5/5).

~ "A New Kind of 'Sexting,'" Judy Berman, Salon's Broadsheet: Berman reports that the teenage practice of "sexting" -- or sending sexual text or picture messages via cell phone -- "has reached fever pitch." The practice of sexting has prompted sex educators "to wise up to teens' intimate relationships with their cellphones and are planning new programs accordingly," Berman writes. She cites several programs, including the Birds and Bees Text Line, a project of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, through which teens ages 14 to 19 can submit anonymous sex questions via text message to which the trained staff members respond. While these programs can be seen as controversial, "in a state like North Carolina, where schools are required to teach abstinence-only sex education, the service seems to fill a knowledge gap that may be seriously harming teenagers," according to Berman. She writes, "While nothing can substitute for comprehensive sex ed in the classroom, the Birds and Bees is a daring step in the right direction" (Berman, Salon's Broadsheet, 5/4).

~ "Her Honor: Domineering and Dumb," Rebecca Traister, Salon's Broadsheet: Traister points to a recent editorial by New Republic legal affairs editor Jeffrey Rosen about Sonia Sotomayor -- a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals who could be one of President Obama's "leading contenders" for the open Supreme Court position -- as "a primer on how we talk about ladies when they are up for big (and traditionally male) jobs." According to Traister, the Rosen piece provides a list of "weaknesses" based on reports from co-workers who criticized Sotomayor's temperament and her lack of "intellectual gravitas" when discussing her chances for the Supreme Court. Traister writes that intelligence is "one of the most readily available spears to throw at a woman in competition for a man's job, especially when that job is a heavy intellectual lift." According to Traister, it is "also unsurprising, but grossly familiar, that questions about Sotomayor's intellectual chops come after so much focus on how great an asset her background as an urban Puerto Rican woman is to her Supreme Court prospects." Traister continues, "It seems a barely veiled setup, if not by Rosen than by his sources, for an affirmative action insinuation: that she is only in contention" for the seat "because of her status as a minority" (Traister, Salon's Broadsheet, 5/4).

~ "Gallup Poll: More Than Two-Thirds of Catholics Approve of Obama," Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report's God and Country: Gilgoff reports that a Gallup poll released last week shows that 67% of Roman Catholics approve of President Obama's job performance, compared with his 63% approval rating among all U.S. residents. He writes, "Even Catholics who call themselves politically conservative are more likely to approve of Obama than not." Gilgoff asks, "Is it possible that a lot of us in the media ... have made way too much of the Notre Dame controversy?" (Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report's God and Country, 5/1).

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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