Tag: abortion

ABC News reports that 104 House members have also sent a letter to President Bush calling on him to "halt all action" on a proposed regulation.

While the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association has an excellent post examining the right's concerted attempt to get rid of birth control in the United States.  

British MPs have tabled an amendment to enact the 1967 Abortion Act in Northern Ireland, which would give women in Northern Ireland the same abortion rights and access to public funding as women in the rest of Britain (via the BBC).

Kate Sheppard's article titled "McCain's War on Women" lists the candidate's many anti-woman stances, including his poor voting record on women's issues such as reproductive health and economic equality.

In an article for The Guardian, columnist Sarah Wildman chronicles the many disastrous policies enacted by the Bush Administration, and how such policies have successfully undermined the reproductive health of women worldwide.

RH Reality Check uncovers an HHS letter that promises that states applying for Title V abstinence-only sex-education grants for fiscal year 2009 will receive the money until 2013 without reapplying, in an attempt the lure states wary of accepting such funds because of the uncertainty of the future of the program, even though Congress has not yet approved such funding.

In a guest post for RH Reality Check, Senator Hillary Clinton states her opposition to Bush's proposed HHS rules, saying that the Administration is again putting ideology before science and women's health.  

The Nation's Katha Politt takes the mainstream media to task for failing to report on John McCain's opposition to birth control, pointing out that this fact is far more relevant to the electorate than most of the election topics they choose to cover.

Anti-choice gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi appears on King 5's Up Front program where he again claims that the office of governor has nothing to do with choice.  In response to David Postman's comment that candidates have a responsibility to address issues that are of concern to the electorate, Rossi claims he doesn't have time to talk to the voters about issues he's not focusing on.

Catholics for Choice has launched a global, grassroots campaign asking Catholics to pressure the Vatican to end its devastating 40-year ban on contraception.

RH Reality Check provides a nice round-up on McCain's anti-woman positions, including a Keith Olbermann report on his off-color jokes and articles on his anti-birth control and abortion stances.

The New Mexico Independent covers more in-depth the story of three NARAL volunteers denied entry to a John McCain town hall meeting in Albuquerque and states that the activists intended to ask McCain a question relating to his recently scrutinized position on birth control.

The Seattle P-I published an opinion piece on the dangers of Colorado's proposed "Human Life Amendment" which would establish a fertilized egg the same legal rights as a human being.

Judith Warner writes that despite John McCain's attempts to persuade women voters he supports their issues his voting record shows strong evidence to the contrary.

Politico.com covers an increasing trend of Obama followers who define themselves as "spiritual" and also pro-choice, incorporating their faith with progressive positions on abortion and sex education.

Susan Wood discusses the serious flaws of the Bush Administration's proposed HHS rule to define some contraception as abortion and the dangerous implications that follow.

Starting today, doctors in South Dakota will be forced to tell women seeking an abortion the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being", and that abortion may cause them psychological harm, including thoughts of suicide: (via The News Tribune).

An ad by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund showing John McCain's July 10th interview where he fails to address his stance on health insurance coverage of birth control is being launched in the television markets of several swing states: (via The Washington Post).

Amanda Marcotte writes on "The Pro-Choice First Lady Stunt", whereby conservative candidates' wives pose as pro-choice in order to mollify their husbands' anti-choice views, and points out how ultimately this practice continues to confer women's reproductive rights in the hands of men: (via RH Reality Check).

Legislators and activists respond to yesterday's disclosure of the Bush administration's HHS proposal that would limit birth control access by redefining some types of contraception as abortion and that confuses the medical definition of conception: (via Reuters).

Jessica Arons of The Nation writes a piece on how the anti-choice movement has crafted the abortion debate to center on late-term abortions, when in reality other issues concerning reproductive health are much more imperative and widespread.

University of Michigan researchers found that teen sexual behavior is not a predictor of HPV risk, and because the virus is so common and easily transmitted researchers suggest all teens, regardless of current sexual behavior, should receive the vaccine: (via RH Reality Check).

Dr. Sue Makin, an OB/GYN working in Malawi, shares her account of the poor reproductive health conditions for women in a country where two-thirds of deaths among women of reproductive age are due to pregnancy or childbirth: (via The New York Times).

The United Nations Population Fund is focusing today's World Population Day on the issues of maternal mortality and family planning, and has called for governments to take more action to promote birth control, gender equality and reproductive health (via AlterNet)

The BBC reports that women in countries where abortion is restricted - such as Northern Ireland - are purchasing medications enabling them to abort a pregnancy at home from internet websites, however the quality of medical information provided by these sites greatly differs and government officials are concerned that sites which aren't well managed could lead to a new era of `backstreet abortions'.

Barack Obama decries John McCain's opposition to an equal-pay Senate bill, support for conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices and abortion-rights objections (via The Seattle Times).
While McCain courts conservative voters in Ohio by emphasizing his anti-abortion record (via CNN).  

An Ohio health care facility providing non-surgical abortion care is being evicted from the office complex in which it and a number of other medical practices are located.  The owner of the complex owner claims the clinic has disturbed other tenants, however the only disturbance appears to have been created by anti-choice protesters outside the clinic (via The Akron Beacon Journal).

A committee in Brazil's lower house of Congress has voted down a bill, which had been stuck in Congress for 17 years, which would have legalized abortion in the world's most populous Roman Catholic nation.  It is now likely to be shelved (via Reuters).

RH Reality Check provides an excellent round-up of the G-8 summit's decisions regarding global maternal and newborn health policy, noting that this is the first time the G-8 agenda has addressed these issues.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard arguments on the preliminary injunction against state Board of Pharmacy rules mandating that pharmacies must fill legal prescriptions, inclusing Plan B.  The judges expressed particular interest in whether the injunction could be limited to the plaintiffs, rather than the entire state, but isn't expected to rule for four weeks at the earliest (via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer).  

Planned Parenthood Action Fund announces its endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for president of the United States, marking only the second time in Planned Parenthood's history that the Action Fund has made a presidential endorsement.  

Canada will honour Henry Morgentaler - the doctor who led the fight to legalize abortion in Canada - with its highest civilian award, the Governor General's Order of Canada (via Reuters).  

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette examines Pennsylvania's decision to refuse more than $5.8 million in federal Title V abstinence-only education funding since 2003, pointing out that a refusal of federal funding shows just how little confidence states have in abstinence-only programs.  

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard arguments on the preliminary injunction against state Board of Pharmacy rules mandating that pharmacies must fill legal prescriptions, inclusing Plan B.  The judges expressed particular interest in whether the injunction could be limited to the plaintiffs, rather than the entire state, but isn't expected to rule for four weeks at the earliest (via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer).  

Planned Parenthood Action Fund announces its endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for president of the United States, marking only the second time in Planned Parenthood's history that the Action Fund has made a presidential endorsement.  

Canada will honour Henry Morgentaler - the doctor who led the fight to legalize abortion in Canada - with its highest civilian award, the Governor General's Order of Canada (via Reuters).  

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette examines Pennsylvania's decision to refuse more than $5.8 million in federal Title V abstinence-only education funding since 2003, pointing out that a refusal of federal funding shows just how little confidence states have in abstinence-only programs.  

While RH Reality Check writer Rev. Debra Haffner criticizes anti-abortion activist Rev. Jim Wallis' ineffective and insulting `abortion reduction' strategy, saying that a more effective way to lower the abortion rate is to reduce the instance of unplanned pregnancies and increase economic opportunities for women.  

The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health will ask the G8 summit to commit an additional $10.2 billion annually to support family planning and maternal and child health programs in developing nations (via Women's eNews).

Barack Obama clarifies his position on health exceptions for late-term abortions, reiterating that he does support mental-health exceptions (via The Chicago Tribune).

Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon says that South Dakota's so-called `informed consent' law sets a dangerous precedent for future abortion laws as it describes a fetus as a "human being", despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade that a fetus is not legally a person.  

A New York Times editorial highlights the importance of the upcoming Presidential election in determining the next Supreme Court Justice, saying that one more conservative appointment would shift the balance to the far-right bloc and likely result in an elimination of constitutional protection of women's reproductive rights.  

The citizen-initiated grand jury investigation of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller has adjourned without finding that any violation of abortion law (via The Wichita Eagle).

Minnesota combats rising sexually transmitted infection rates with patient-delivered partner therapy (PDPT) which allows physicians to dispense prescriptions for the partners of patients who have tested positive without seeing the partner for an evaluation (via RH Reality Check).

I call abortions past 24 weeks Mercy Abortions...and I'll tell you why.

For 14 years, I worked at Midtown Hospital in Atlanta, a woman's hospital specializing in late abortion.  The hospital opened in 1977 because at that time, Georgia law mandated that an abortion past 12 weeks had to be performed in a hospital.  Abortion had just been made legal in 1973 and it became the first procedure to be widely performed on an outpatient basis.  

More below the fold.