Blogs Comment On Antiabortion Super Bowl Ad, Tiller Murder Trial, Other Topics

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Litigation / Medical Malpractice;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 01 Feb 2010 - 0:00 PDT

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

~ "Center for Reproductive Rights' Letter to CBS: Tebow Story Raises Serious Accuracy Questions," Nancy Northup, Huffington Post blogs: In a letter to CBS over its plans to air an antiabortion-rights Focus on the Family ad during the Super Bowl, Center for Reproductive Rights President Northup asks the network to "reconsider" the decision. It is "essential" that the network determine whether the ad "meets CBS's own standards with regard to accuracy and advocacy," Northup says. She writes that the Associated Press in a Jan. 16 article "reported that 'the commercial is likely to be an antiabortion message chronicling Pam Tebow's 1987 pregnancy'" while she was working in the Philippines as a missionary. Northup notes that abortion has been illegal in the Philippines since 1870 and that "Filipino law does not contain a single exception to its abortion ban -- not even to save the life of the pregnant woman or to protect her health." She adds that providers "who perform abortions in the Philippines face six years in prison and may have their licenses suspended or revoked. Women who receive abortions -- no matter the reason -- may be punished with imprisonment for two to six years." As a result "of these draconian and discriminatory laws and practices, women with life-threatening pregnancies have had no choice but to risk their lives, either by continuing their high-risk pregnancies or seeking unsafe abortions," she continues. Northup writes, "In recognition of its responsibility to operate the network in the public interest, CBS has long followed a policy requiring that all claims in advertisements be carefully and closely reviewed for accuracy." She continues, "Given this context, it raises questions about whether physicians in the Philippines would have urged a married pregnant woman to illegally terminate her pregnancy in 1987." Northup also states that the ad "violates CBS's long-standing advocacy policy, which prohibits advertisements advocating viewpoints on an issue that has 'a significant impact on society or its institutions, and is the subject of vigorous debate with substantial elements of the community in opposition to one another.'" However, "Instead of rigorously applying this policy to the Tebow ad, CBS announced on Tuesday that it has decided to 'ease its restrictions,' stating that 'its policies toward advocacy ads ... (have) evolved over the past several years,'" Northup writes. She adds, "We are very concerned about including in this evolution an ad that recounts a story out-of-context paid for by an anti-choice organization" (Northup, Huffington Post blogs, 1/28).

~ "National Abortion Federation and ACLU Ask Court To Preclude Voluntary Manslaughter Charge In Trial of Dr. Tiller's Murderer," National Abortion Federation's "Saporta Reporter": The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of NAF, ACLU and ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri in the trial of Scott Roeder, the man charged with the shooting death of abortion provider George Tiller, NAF reports in a blog entry. The brief asks the court "to preclude Roeder from arguing his antiabortion beliefs in support of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter rather than first degree murder," the blog says. NAF President Vicki Saporta said Roeder "should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," adding, "In a civilized society we cannot allow extremists to commit murder to advance their own religious or political beliefs" ("Saporta Reporter," National Abortion Federation, 1/27).

~ "The Horror of Teen Motherhood," Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon's "Broadsheet": "A favored approach of the abstinence movement has always been to try to scare the crap out of kids," and a new advertising campaign in Milwaukee "has taken a more literal 'sex as boogeyman' approach by promoting a horror flick about teenage motherhood," Clark-Flory writes. Advertisements for the imaginary film, "2028," "come complete with a gravelly male voice-over and a creeping orchestral soundtrack," and the "final trailer features the requisite shots of blood, a screaming woman and a pale, wide-eyed child straight out of 'Orphan,'" she writes. The ads end with the message, "Get pregnant as a teen and the next 18 years could be the hardest of your life," after which a Web site address -- BabyCanWait.com -- appears on the screen. Clark-Flory writes, "There is no denying that these campaigns are attention-grabbing -- and with the seventh-highest teen birth rate in the country, [Milwaukee] can't exactly afford to make a soft sell." However, "I get hung up on the hyperbole" in the ads, which "don't talk contraceptives (although at least the Baby Can Wait site does) and portray sex as an inevitably horrific event," she continues. "Raising a kid as a teenager may be tremendously difficult, but it doesn't rise to the level of a cataclysmic event or even necessarily a ... horror flick," Clark-Flory writes, concluding, "My general feeling is that teenagers deserve our honesty and respect, and they are poorly served by adults' lies and distortions about sex and pregnancy" (Clark-Flory, "Broadsheet," Salon, 1/28).

~ "Teen Pregnancy Rate Rises: Are Abstinence-Only Programs To Blame?" Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times' "Booster Shots": Although teen pregnancy rates "plummeted in the 1990s, largely due to increased access to contraceptives," a recent Guttmacher Institute study "shows that the teen pregnancy rate rose 3% in 2006, the first increase since the late 80s," Roan writes. Guttmacher "says that abstinence-only sex education programs that took root during the Bush administration are to blame for the increase," according to Roan. She adds that in California, the teen pregnancy rate has reached an all-time low, based on 2005 data. Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher's state policy expert, said that the state's drop in teen pregnancy "is not surprising considering that California -- the only state that never accepted federal abstinence-only dollars -- has committed to providing teens with comprehensive sex education and access to the services they need to prevent pregnancy and protect their health" (Roan, "Booster Shots," Los Angeles Times, 1/27).

~ "Obama Can't Make Eye Contact With Abortion Rights," Loretta Ross, Huffington Post blogs: "A year ago, millions of us watched with great hope the inauguration of President Obama," Ross, founder and national coordinator of the Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, writes. She adds, "I did not expect him to be a miracle worker," as he "needed to prioritize saving the economy, ending the wars, combating terrorism, enacting health care reform and restoring trust in the government before he could get to the main issues I wanted as a reproductive justice activist." However, it was "truly disappointing ... the way President Obama flinched every time support for abortion came up in policy debates -- from the stimulus bill to health care reform," Ross continues, adding, "His failure to stand up for the human rights of women -- and to trust us -- began to make me wonder about his commitment to those of us who were his core constituents and helped elect him." According to Ross, "Instead of dismantling Hyde, he's defending it, while not understanding that a country that can be persuaded that poor women are second class citizens who don't deserve funding for abortions can morph into a country that believes that all poor people don't deserve funding for health care at all," Ross writes (Ross, Huffington Post blogs, 1/28).

~ "Roundup: More Talking About Tebow," Robin Marty, RH Reality Check: Marty rounds up other blogs concerning CBS' planned airing of an antiabortion-rights advertisement sponsored by Focus on the Family during the Super Bowl. The ad focuses on the story of Pam Tebow, who became ill with amoebic dysentery while pregnant during a missions trip to the Philippines and was advised by doctors to have an abortion for health reasons. Tebow carried the pregnancy to term and gave birth to a son, Tim, who went on to win college football's Heisman Trophy. Marty first summarizes an opinion piece by Jonathan Capehart in the Washington Post's "Post-Partisan." Capehart points out that Pam Tebow "was able to make an informed decision" and that she "was presented with a choice." Similarly, the Kansas City Star's Yael Abouhalkah writes that the ad's message is that "Tebow's mom had a choice and she made it." Marty also includes a piece from the "Blog of the Moderate Left" by Jeff Fecke, who notes that Pam Tebow "is leaving a very big background piece unstated: abortion is illegal in the Philippines." Fecke adds, "Ultimately Pam and Tim Tebow want to limit the right of women to decide what happens in their own bodies," and in order to do so, "they're willing to fudge the truth about the circumstances surrounding her own choice" (Marty, RH Reality Check, 1/28).

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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