Blogs Comment On Abortion Coverage, Female Condoms, Other Topics

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 26 Jul 2010 - 2:00 PDT

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

~ "The Obama Administration Takes a Page From Stupak's Playbook," Allie Bohm, ACLU's Blog of Rights: On July 14, "the Obama administration inexplicably announced that it is bringing back Stupak in the high-risk pools required by the law," Bohm writes. There is "nothing in the new health reform law (PL 111-148) that requires this restriction, and it is deeply disturbing that a pro-choice administration would voluntarily impose such an anti-choice measure," she continues. Bohm adds, "What's worse is that this new restriction affects the most vulnerable among us," as many women in the high-risk pools likely will face "serious health issues" and have a "special need for abortion." She adds, "In fact, this ban is more restrictive than the abortion provision that will govern the [state insurance] exchanges once they are established: It does not allow states to choose to cover abortion, and it does not allow women in the pool to buy a comprehensive policy that covers abortion even though they will be contributing large amounts of their own money to the premium" (Bohm, "Blogs of Rights," ACLU, 7/20).

~"Reproductive Justice Organizations Denounce Anti-Choice 'Freedom Rides,' Plan Counter-Rally," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: Jacobson, editor-in-chief of RH Reality Check, writes about the efforts of three Atlanta-based groups -- SisterSong, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW! and SisterLove -- to respond to an antiabortion-rights billboard campaign in the city. On July 23, supporters of the antiabortion-rights billboard campaign plan to launch a "Freedom Bus for the Unborn" tour from Birmingham, Ala., Jacobson says. The reproductive rights groups are planning a counter-protest the next day to "set the record straight about the antiabortion campaign and call on the public to trust black women to make their own decisions about what's best for them and their families," according to SisterSong National Coordinator Loretta Ross. Ross noted, "Both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King firmly supported reproductive justice for women. Lies by antiabortionists, no matter how often repeated, cannot change those historical facts" (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 7/21).

~ "A Woman's Body: Neither an Incubator, a House, Nor a Meth Lab," Alex DiBranco, Change.org's "Women's Rights": Abortion-rights opponents "often seem to be a little unclear about what a woman's body is," framing a woman "as a baby-making machine rather than a person," DiBranco writes. A woman "is not an incubator" and is "also not a house nor a meth lab, although Alabama appears to be particularly confused on this point," she continues. According to DiBranco, Alabama has prosecuted more than 20 women under a law that criminalizes bringing children into houses that operate as meth labs. "This seems like a pretty good law, but the funny thing is, none of these women were breaking it under any reasonable understanding of the word 'house'" because they were "women who became pregnant while addicted to meth and decided not to have an abortion," she writes. DiBranco says that she "can only attribute it to the extremely skewed reproductive rights debate surrounding women's bodies that anyone would make this dehumanizing connection" (DiBranco, "Women's Rights," Change.org, 7/22).

~ "The Myth of the Teen Pregnancy Epidemic," Kierra Johnson, RH Reality Check: Johnson questions whether "the fact that teens are having sex" is as "unfortunate" as conservative groups and some abortion-rights supporters suggest. She notes that "[p]eople in every age bracket have sex, get pregnant, have abortions and have children," adding that statistics from the Guttmacher Institute show teens have lower rates of sexual activity, pregnancy, abortion and birth compared with other age groups. The "true epidemic" concerns the "lack of information and support for people to make healthy decisions about their lives" and the "culture of shame and scapegoating around sex," Johnson states. "[T]his epidemic crosses generations, with young people feeling the brunt of it," she continues, adding that teens "need access to information to make informed decisions regarding sex and the resources and support to handle the outcomes of having sex." They also "need comprehensive sexuality education, access to affordable maternal and child care and contraceptive services," Johnson writes (Johnson, RH Reality Check, 7/22).

~ "Female Condoms: No Better Time Than Now," Serra Sippel, International Women's Health Coalition's "Akimbo": "Women all over the world have expressed a demand for female condoms," but the method remains "grossly underfunded and under-supported by international and national donors and governments," Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, writes. She adds, "Female condoms remain the only tool that offers 'dual protection,' in other words, it can protect against HIV and [sexually transmitted infections] and prevent pregnancy. And it is in the control of women to use." Studies conducted across the world have found that making both male and female condoms available can increase the number of protected sex acts and decrease STI rates. "When women and men have a number of different ways to protect themselves, they do so more often," Sippel writes (Sippel, "Akimbo," International Women's Health Coalition, 7/21).

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.

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