Blogs Comment On Rural Abortion Access, State Policy, Other Topics

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

~ "A Pioneering Effort to Increase Rural Women's Access to Safe Abortion in Iowa," Kathleen Reeves, RH Reality Check: The antiabortion-rights group Operation Rescue is "taking aim" at Planned Parenthood of the Heartland's practice of "using video-conferencing and a remote-controlled drawer to dispense" abortion medications in its Iowa clinics, Reeves writes. Operation Rescue is "charging that because these medication abortions are not 'performed by a physician,' they violate Iowa law," she states. The group's "claim doesn't stand up" because "the medication abortion 'procedure' requires the counsel and knowledge of a health care provider -- and these days, we do not have to be physically present to share knowledge and expertise," she argues. Rural residents "have to work harder to gain access to health care, and this is particularly true of reproductive health services," Reeves continues, adding that women in rural areas "are disproportionately affected by the obstructionist anti-choice laws that may seem like 'no big deal' to those of us in more fortunate circumstances." Planned Parenthood of the Heartland's "use of telemedicine acknowledges a key tenet of reproductive choice: that the most substantive and often difficult part of an abortion happens before a woman visits a clinic," she writes. The organization "deserves a medal for seeking to address the geographic (and often economic) disparity in abortion access in a smart and safe way," Reeves adds (Reeves, RH Reality Check, 8/23).

~ "Roundup: Want To Anger A LOT of Women? Propose Eliminating Epidurals To 'Save Money,'" Robin Marty, RH Reality Check: As states continue to address budget deficits and skyrocketing medical costs, Utah state Sen. Dan Liljenquist (R) "believes he has come up with a partial solution to the problem: deny epidurals for any pregnant woman on Medicaid," Marty writes. According to the Provo Daily Herald, Liljenquist has proposed to "cut all elective epidurals and elective [caesarean] sections" during the next legislative session as part of an effort to reform Medicaid. Marty asks, "So first you eliminate abortion options so women are forced to give birth should they have a birth control failure, then you tell them it needs to be as painful as possible as well?" She continues that it is "not surprising that the reaction has been somewhat ... passionate." In an article reacting to the proposal, Opposing Views argued that "[r]ich women will be able to afford paying for pain relief and poor middle class women will not have access to it" (Marty, RH Reality Check, 8/23).














~ "The Objection to Alaska's Antiabortion Measure," Monica Potts, American Prospect's "TAPPED": An Alaska ballot measure that would require a minor's parents to be notified two days before an abortion procedure is "designed to limit teenage girls' rights," Potts writes. State voters will consider the measure next week. While there is "nothing new" about parental notification, "[w]hat does seem new is the name of the group opposing the ballot measure: Alaskans Against Government Mandates," Potts continues. "It's not a women's health rights group, it's a group that rightly points out this is a new government mandate that will impinge upon freedom," she adds. Potts says she has "been waiting for some time for conservatives to address the core hypocrisy in their platform: the idea that government regulation is bad unless it involves regulating women's bodies." The group's website states that it is "a rapidly growing coalition ... working to defeat Ballot Measure 2, a dangerous new mandate that puts the government into the middle of our families." Potts writes that this is "a brilliant appropriation of the often successful language conservatives use, and it could only be made better if it were adopted by abortion-rights groups around the country" (Potts, "TAPPED," American Prospect, 8/20).

~ "Cuccinelli Authorizes Same Antiabortion Regulations He Failed To Enact as State Senator," Ian Millhiser, Think Progress: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) "has decided that he does not need legislative authority" to require abortion clinics to comply with hospital-type regulations, Millhiser writes, noting that Cuccinelli recently issued a legal opinion stating that the state Board of Health "already has the power to do what [he] failed to accomplish in the Legislature." Millhiser continues, "At the very least, Cuccinelli's opinion opens the door for Virginia to enact the very same kind of restrictive regulations that are already the law in South Carolina." However, the opinion "could lead to even more aggressive use of" so-called TRAP -- Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers -- laws, which "attempt to cut off a woman's constitutional right to choose an abortion by driving up the cost of the procedure through intentionally burdensome regulations," Millhiser states. The new legal opinion is "only the latest example of Cuccinelli suddenly discovering that the law must agree with whatever his personal views are on an issue," Millhiser adds (Millhiser, Think Progress, 8/23).

~ "Punishing Women: A Woman's Job?" Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check: "Even though the reality is that women from all walks of life get abortions, the perception in the general public is that abortion is an indicator of" promiscuity, writes Marcotte, citing a recent Rasmussen poll in which 48% of respondents said an abortion is "too easy" to get. Marcotte continues, "The anti-choice media was triumphant over this poll, mostly because it showed that women are more likely to want more obstacles for women seeking abortions," which they believe "means this isn't a women's rights issue, even though the people who hold the right to abortion are women." However, "there's no reason to think reproductive freedom isn't an important women's issue just because women are more likely to judge other women about their sexual choices," according to Marcotte. "Now that we have ways of attaining economic independence and social status that don't involve getting and staying married, we have less of a need to create a protectionist racket over female sexuality," she writes, adding that "there's simply less need to deprive ourselves or judge others" (Marcotte, RH Reality Check, 8/24).

~ "Judge Suspends All Federal Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research," Ian Millhiser, Think Progress: On Monday, "a federal trial judge in D.C." ordered the suspension of "all federal funding of embryonic stem cell research during ongoing litigation, claiming that such funding is illegal" because it "violates the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for 'research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed,'" Millhiser writes. "[I]t's difficult to square this decision with Supreme Court precedent," he continues. "Under Chevron v. NRDC, judges are normally supposed to defer to an agency's reading of a federal law unless the agency's interpretation is entirely implausible," according to Millhiser. The "Obama administration quite plausibly read the Dickey-Wicker Amendment to only prohibit federal funding of the actual destruction of an embryo -- not federal funding of subsequent ... research," Millhiser argues. He continues, "President George W. Bush allowed federal funding for research on existing embryonic stem cell lines but would not allow new lines to be created," and the new opinion "even forbids such entirely uncontroversial research" (Millhiser, Think Progress, 8/23).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. 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.


© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.