Blogs Comment On Court Rulings, Reproductive Health Coverage Under Health Reform

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice;  Sexual Health / STDs;  Abortion
Article Date: 24 Aug 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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

~ "Oklahoma Court Strikes Down State Abortion Law," Bethany Sousa, Womenstake: Tuesday was "a good day for women's reproductive rights in Oklahoma," as a state district court " blocked a state abortion law (SB 1878), which included five different abortion restrictions, including an extremely intrusive ultrasound requirement," Sousa, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center, writes. The ultrasound requirement "forced a woman who was seeking an abortion to not only endure the unnecessary test but to have it shown on a screen in front of her while listening to a verbal description of the image," Sousa writes. The law was "passed by legislators whose idea about women's autonomy remains grounded firmly in the Victorian era" and who subscribe to the "antiquated notion that women cannot make their own decisions," Sousa says. She adds that the court's decision is "not only victory not only for the Center for Reproductive Rights," which challenged the law, "but for women in Oklahoma who will be spared from a law that questions their autonomy and threatens their health and dignity" (Sousa, Womenstake, 8/19).

~ "Health Care Reform, Honestly," Planned Parenthood Advocate: "It would be an understatement to call the rhetoric around the health care reform debate either incendiary or intellectually dishonest," according to a post on the Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund's blog. The blog entry adds, "One thing I've had trouble finding among all this ... is a reasoned discussion of health care reform." The blog continues, "The boogeyman of abortion and the increasingly exaggerated claims about what health care reform will do is distracting us from issues that really need discussing and the problems with our health care system that really need fixing." Health care reform "is very much a women's health issue," as women are covered through public health providers "at a much higher rate than their male counterparts," the blog notes, adding that "people should support health care reform because they support women having access to basic, needed health care without having to bankrupt themselves or send themselves into debt" (Planned Parenthood Advocate, 8/19).

~ "Myth Busters #2: New Health Care System Expands Coverage of Abortion?" NARAL Pro-Choice America, Blog for Choice: In the blog entry, NARAL Pro-Choice America posts "an anti-choice video from the ill-titled StopTheAbortionMandate.com." NARAL also posts its own video and offers "another fact to bust the myth that the new health care system would expand coverage of abortion." The blog post adds that NARAL ordinarily avoids "promot[ing] the anti-choicer's videos. But we want to make an exception because this video pretty accurately sums up the nonsense we're up against." Antiabortion-rights opponents' claim that the "new health care system will expand coverage of abortion beyond its current scope" is inaccurate, the blogs says, adding that more than 80% of private insurance plans currently cover abortion services. The new system would allow "consumers [to] choose a plan that does not offer abortion care if they like, just as they could choose a plan that does or does not offer dental or vision coverage" (NARAL Pro-Choice America, Blog for Choice, 8/20).

~ "Judge Strikes Down Portions of South Dakota Law as Unconstitutional," Planned Parenthood Advocate: Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota "applaud[s]" a ruling by the U.S. District Court in South Dakota that struck down portions of a state law requiring doctors to "give ideologically charged and misleading information to women seeking abortion services," the blog says. Judge Karen Schreier struck down provisions requiring patients to be informed that "an increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide" is a "known medical risk" of abortion and that having an abortion ends "an existing relationship" between the patient and the fetus. However, Planned Parenthood is "disappointed that the court felt bound by an earlier Court of Appeals ruling to uphold another provision of the law compelling doctors to tell a woman, in the exact words written by the Legislature, that 'the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being'" (Planned Parenthood Advocate, 8/21).

~ "Health Care Reform Fortune Teller -- Unable To Predict the Future, but Will Tell You Why Women Can't Wait for Health Reform," Thao Nguyen, Womenstake: Nguyen's post features a video demonstrating the National Women's Law Center's health care "fortune teller" -- a printable template that advocates can use to explain why women are "fighting so hard" for reform. According to Nguyen, the video also shows "why when September rolls around, we will be prepared with the facts that will help us win affordable, accessible and comprehensive health care for all." Nguyen urges readers to watch the video "to learn how to use the fortune teller to educate your family, friends and community about why women and their families can't wait for health reform" (Nguyen, Womenstake, 8/20).

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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