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National Documentation Centre (NDC)

Women Health

Blogs Comment On State Abortion Legislation, Maternal Mortality, Other Topics (Medical News
Today:17 June 2010)

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

~ "Abortion Bills by the Numbers," Jessica Arons/Alexandra Cawthorne, Center for American Progress'
"Women's Health & Rights": Arons and Cawthorne -- both of CAP's Women's Health & Rights Program -
- review state-level antiabortion-rights legislation. Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-Neb.) language in the federal
health reform law (PL 111-148) "all but invites states to ban coverage of abortion" in the state health
insurance exchanges that must be established by 2014. Using model legislation from Americans United
for Life, "29 states already have abortion opt-out bills in the pipeline for the 2010 and 2011 legislative
sessions," they add. Although "sponsors of these bills claim that their legislation only restricts public
funding of abortion care, ... closer inspection reveals that these bills mimic the infamous Stupak
amendment, which abortion-rights proponents fought so hard to beat back in federal legislation, and will
broadly limit private coverage of abortion in the states where these bills are enacted," Arons and
Cawthorne write. They also review how abortion-rights opponents "are using their newfound leverage to
advance many of their other ideas -- such as requiring ultrasound before an abortion -- and to push
through a few novel ones." According to Arons and Cawthorne, "In this time of economic turmoil, states
should be working on ways to expand access to health care. ... Instead, they have chosen to waste valuable
time and resources by passing laws of questionable constitutionality that punish women and make
difficult circumstances even harder" (Arons/Cawthorne, "Women's Health & Rights," Center for
American Progress, 6/11).

~ "Abortion Coming to the Military," Anna Clark, Salon's "Broadsheet": Under current U.S. military
policy, if a servicewoman in a war zone wishes to have an abortion, "she'll have a hard time exercising
her right to a procedure that is legal and safe in the nation she represents," Clark writes, noting that
abortions are "banned from most military hospitals" even when women pay for the procedure themselves.
"For the 100,000-plus women serving overseas -- as well as family members who live with them on
foreign bases -- this makes abortion a practical impossibility" and leaves them with "less access to health
care than their civilian counterparts," Clark explains. An amendment in the Senate's defense authorization
bill (S 3280) "would make abortion accessible for overseas military service members" by allowing
abortion in military hospitals "if they are paid up front with private dollars," Clark states. Physicians
would be able to refuse to participate in abortion care if they have moral objections. According to Planned
Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, "Every woman honorably serving our
country in the U.S. military and the spouses of military personnel stationed around the world deserve
access to the full range of reproductive health care available to women in the United States" (Clark,
"Broadsheet," Salon, 6/14).

~ "Melinda Gates on 350,000 Childbirth Deaths: 'We Can Prevent Most,'" Sarah Wildman, Politics
Daily's "Women Up": Wildman reports on last week's Women Deliver conference, where 3,500 attendees
from 140 countries came together "to discuss one thing: No woman should die giving life." Conference
organizers and advocates called on donors to commit $12 billion to address maternal health and related
issues. Wildman quotes Melinda Gates, who spoke during the first day of the conference and pledged $1.5
billion over five years from the Gates Foundation. Gates said, "The death toll is so huge and has persisted
for so long it's easy to think we're powerless. The truth is, we can prevent most of these deaths -- and at a
stunningly low cost -- if we take action now." Wildman also reviews other discussion from the
conference, including abortion and family planning (Wildman, "Women Up," Politics Daily, 6/11).

~"Do Anti-Choicers Need to Get a Life?"Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check: Marcotte comments on
the documentary "12th and Delaware," which "chronicles the tension between a Florida-based abortion
clinic and the crisis pregnancy center that set up across the street." The film -- scheduled to debut on HBO
on Aug. 3 -- draws attention to the strong contrast between the evil image of abortion providers that anti-
choicers concoct and the reality of what goes on in the clinic. According to Marcotte, the first half of the
film shows the head of the CPC "teaching a class where she explains that women go into a clinic and get a
hard sell to get an abortion." In the second half of the film, viewers "see the reality -- the clinic owner
reminding women over and over that this is only something they should do if they're really sure." She
continues, "The anti-choicers in the film have spent so long painting themselves as saints fighting evil that
they seem to have no idea how much they come across as heartless bullies" (Marcotte, RH Reality Check,
6/14).
~ "Non-Virgins Need Not Apply," Debra Haffner, Huffington Post blogs: Haffner responds to the recent
firing of a 39-year-old Christian elementary school teacher who disclosed to the school that she became
pregnant before she married her husband. "Although many churches continue to mandate 'celibacy until
marriage,' most clergy today know that most of the couples they marry have already had shared sexual
behaviors," Haffer, a Unitarian Universalist minister and director of the Religious Institute, writes. "I don't
believe [the teacher] acted immorally or unethically in having sex with her fiance," Haffner continues,
adding that the Guttmacher Institute estimates that "for at least the last 40 years, 95% of Americans had
sexual intercourse before marriage." Haffner states that an "ethical sexual relationship is defined not by
the marital status of the partners (nor by their sexual orientations or genders), but by whether their
relationship is characterized by love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent and pleasure." Premarital
chastity "should not be among the criteria of employment," Haffner writes, concluding that "if the news
reports are true, [the teacher] should be reinstated. That's the moral response that should not be
disregarded" (Haffner, Huffington Post blogs, 6/15).