Blogs Comment On Myths About Health Care Reform, Ryan-DeLauro Bill, Other Topics

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Abortion;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 19 Aug 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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

~ "The Truth About Abortion and Health Reform," NARAL Pro-Choice America, Blog for Choice: Presidential adviser David Axelrod "had a good idea" when he sent an e-mail on Aug. 13 urging supporters "to forward his message to friends and family as a way to combat false statements about health reform," according to the blog entry. The blog urges advocates "in the spirit of debunking myths with facts" to similarly forward NARAL's email regarding abortion in health care reform and "push back against blatant attempts by right-wing groups to use anti-choice politics to derail the health reform effort." The blog entry says it is "not enough for fact-checking groups to discredit these anti-choice groups' charges," as the antiabortion-rights group use "blogs and their extensive network of activists to spread distortions and outright lies." The blog concludes, "These statements may sound outlandish to many of us, but we all know that, if a lie goes unchecked, it can soon be interpreted as the truth" (NARAL Pro-Choice America, Blog for Choice, 8/14).

~ "Health Care: Commodity or Right?" Eyal Press, The Nation's "The Notion": Most citizens of European countries -- including Finland, France, Germany and the United Kingdom -- "would revolt if their leaders dared to privatize their health care systems" because they "don't think of health care as a commodity" but as a "public good and a basic right," Press writes. He notes that during the presidential campaign, President Obama said that access to health care should be a right for everyone in the U.S. and that "'there is something fundamentally wrong'" with people going bankrupt because they cannot afford medical care. "If Obama intends to pass meaningful health care reform, he needs to remember these words and begin reminding Americans that reforming health care isn't important simply because it will cut waste and improve the quality of care," issues that Obama emphasized in an opinion piece in Sunday's New York Times, Press writes. Health reform is "important because denying medical care to citizens who can't afford it in one of the world's wealthiest countries is unfair and unconscionable: Because health care is not simply a commodity but a right," Press concludes (Press, "The Notion," The Nation, 8/16).

~ "Abortion 'Neutrality' in Health Care Reform: Unfair and Unjust," Debra Haffner, RH Reality Check: "Once again, abortion is taking center stage as a key area of public debate," with some members of the faith community "getting behind 'abortion neutrality' in health care reform," Haffner -- director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing -- writes. Abortion neutrality "would mean the public option would not include abortion services and that private options need not include reproductive health care," according to Haffner. "Translation: poor and low-income women would have no coverage for abortion services," and women who choose the public option "would have no coverage," she adds. Haffner writes that this "doesn't seem like 'neutrality' to me. It sounds like selling out women again for political expediency." She concludes, "I desperately believe we need health care for everyone. But, I implore the White House and the Democrats in Congress not to abandon their commitment to choice to do it." Haffner includes a letter from various national religious leaders urging Congress to include reproductive health services in reform legislation (Haffner, RH Reality Check, 8/18).

~ "Obama Can Find Common Ground on Abortion," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), U.S. News & World Report's "God & Country": "For too long, there has been too much heat and not enough light shed on the question of reducing abortion in this country," according to DeLauro -- who, along with Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), recently introduced the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act (HR 3312). DeLauro continues that the Ryan-DeLauro bill gives the Obama administration "a template" for finding "common ground" on reducing the need for abortion. She writes that although she "will always be a strong and unyielding believer in a woman's fundamental right to choose," many of her colleagues "have been equally passionate and committed to the opposing view." The abortion issue "is not a decision taken lightly but a morally complex matter of conscience that goes to our most basic and fundamental principles," which is why the Ryan-DeLauro bill "takes a different approach to the abortion question from what we have seen in the past," she continues. "At its heart, our bill aims to broker a détente and turn down the volume on the 'culture wars' that have plagued our attempts to prevent unplanned pregnancies in the past," DeLauro says. The bill would do this by "provid[ing] support for new parents to strengthen their families and to make difficult life decisions, unconstrained by financial necessity," DeLauro writes. The bill, which has support from both sides of the abortion debate, includes provisions to prevent teen and unintended pregnancy, improve access to prenatal and postnatal care, increase funding for Title X, and expand the adoption tax credit. The "most important" goal of the bill is to "help us move forward on this issue -- beyond the question of the legality of abortion and toward actually reducing the need for abortion," DeLauro writes, adding that the "middle ground established by the Ryan-DeLauro bill is an excellent step toward making President Obama's goal of achieving common ground a reality" (DeLauro, "God & Country," U.S. News & World Report, 8/17).

~ "Bait and Hitch: Abstinence-Only Programs Use Sex To Push Marriage," Martha Kempner, RH Reality Check: "After reading the recent USA Today article 'Wait for sex and marriage? Evangelicals conflicted,' it occurred to me that the Far Right has been using the same ploy for years when it comes to marriage and sex," Kempner -- vice president for information and communications at SIECUS -- writes. "They want us all to marry ... and like a desperate parent fighting a toddler, posit sex as the ultimate reward -- as if to say, 'We know you want this and there is only one way you can have it,'" she continues. Kempner writes that although she was "horrified ... at the suggestion that it is preferable for twenty-somethings to commit to a life-long relationship with someone they may not know well than to have sex outside of marriage with that same person, I was relieved that abstinence-only champions were finally admitting that the abstinence-only-until-marriage movement is, in fact, about marriage." She continues, "For years the leaders of this movement tried to convince parents, reporters and politicians that it wasn't about marriage and it wasn't about religion, it was about public health and prevention." According to Kempner, "after 10 years of reading these curricula, I can tell you that the real goal of abstinence-only programs is not to prevent teen pregnancies or [sexually transmitted infections] and it's not even to prevent premarital sex -- it's to make sure that all people get married." She writes, "Married people, students are told, live longer, stay happier, and have better sex," and they "never have to worry about [STIs] or unintended pregnancy." Kempner adds, "In contrast, unmarried people are said to be selfish and lacking character traits necessary to be a good citizen. One curriculum even points out that unmarried people are far more likely to go to jail." She continues, "There are many problems with this approach. Let's put aside for a moment that as many as half of the students in these classes probably come from single or divorced parents. Let's even put aside the fact that this focus on marriage discounts and discriminates against lesbian and gay students as well as students whose parents are lesbian or gay. The fundamental issue is a simple one ... marriage is not the only acceptable behavior." She concludes that "we should find all possible teachable moments and opportunities to help young people really think about and understand sexuality and relationships, whether they choose to get married at 20, 50, or never, and regardless of when they first have sex" (Kempner, RH Reality Check, 8/18).

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