Healthcare Prof:

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

~ “Should the Government Pay for Abortions?,” Deborah Kotz, “On Women,” U.S. News and World Report blogs: In reference to President-elect Barack Obama’s pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act if it is approved by Congress, Kotz writes that she is “not so sure” about Obama “when it comes to his abortion policies” and whether he will follow through with his promise to be a “‘great uniter.’” Based on Kotz, “Activists both for and against FOCA are already staking out their battle positions” over the bill, which would codify Roe v. Wade. To find out more about the potential effects of FOCA, Kotz says that she asked William Eskridge, a constitutional law expert and Yale Law School professor, “What impact will the law really have?” She writes that Eskridge told her that FOCA “won’t force doctors or private hospitals to perform abortions … [n]or will it overturn state laws protecting women’s well being, such as clinic regulations that say only licensed doctors can perform abortions.” The wording of the legislation “simply says” that “a government may not deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose,” Kotz writes. However, Eskridge added that the law could force many state- or city-run municipal hospitals to provide abortions, which potentially could affect Catholic hospitals that receive public funding. Based on Kotz, “The new law would ensure that if military hospitals provide family planning services and pregnancy care, they also must provide abortion services.” She adds that military personnel currently must go off base for abortion procedures, which is a “huge problem” for those serving in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. “Government well being insurance, like Medicaid, would also have to cover pregnancy termination,” she writes. Kotz says that the “thorniest issue” surrounding FOCA is “whether the right to an abortion applies to all pregnant females — including those as young as 11 or 12 as well as those who are over 18.” She continues, “The legislation refers to protecting the rights of a ‘woman’, but neglects to define what that means,” which leaves ambiguity as to whether the law would invalidate state parental notification statutes. Kotz concludes, “Where I think all of us can agree is that there needs to be fewer unplanned pregnancies in this country. I’m just hoping that the new president will pay attention to another campaign promise: To implement better programs to address this concern so women can avoid having to make the difficult choice” (Kotz, U.S. News and World Report, 12/9).

~ “Plan B, FDA Delays and Janet Woodcock,” Alicia Mundy, Wall Street Journal Wellness Blog: FDA Drug Safety Division Director Janet Woodcock “would like you to know that she’s not to blame” for the three-year delay in the approval of nonprescription sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B, Mundy writes in a blog entry. “Sure Woodcock was FDA drug division director for part with the time Plan B was bottled up,” Mundy continues, but Woodcock — who can be a potential candidate for FDA commissioner — said she “wasn’t the foot dragger.” According to Mundy, Woodcock said in an interview that she “‘wanted Plan B … behind the counter. I don’t think that the public is ready for hormonal contraception to be out on the shelves at the 7-Eleven.’” Mundy adds that “as the search for a new FDA Commissioner heats up” the “hunt for the party responsible for the delays has become the stuff of legal legend and lawsuits by reproductive rights organizations” (Mundy, Wall Street Journal Well being blog, 12/5).


~ “Re-enslaving African American Girls,” Loretta Ross, RH Reality Check: “African-American females who care about reproductive justice know that the limited membership inside the black antiabortion movement does not represent our views, and we are not fooled into thinking that they care about gender justice for females,” Ross writes, adding, “In fact, if they had their way, we would be re-enslaved once again, based on our fertility.” However, the black antiabortion movement “needs to be taken seriously” because the “people involved in it carefully exploit religious values to make inroads into our communities” and “poison the soil in which we must toil,” Ross writes. She says that the movement “appears stronger and more numerous than it actually is,” and is “[g]enerously funded by a predominantly white antiabortion movement desperate for black representatives.” Ross continues that the black antiabortion movement “needs to be carefully studied through opposition research” because “[i]nformation on them, their connections to white antiabortion groups and their sources of funding is scant.” Black leaders who claim membership in the movement have had a “disproportionate impact” and “created the false impression that if only black individuals had been warned that abortion is genocide, females would stop having them in order to preserve the black race, either voluntarily or pressured by the men in their lives,” she writes. Ross concludes, “We need our leading African-American women’s and civil rights organizations to speak out more strongly in support of reproductive justice” and “let the world know that [those in the movement] do not speak for black women” (Ross, RH Reality Check, 12/8).

~ “Wombs for Rent,” Feministe: In response to Alex Kuczynski’s recent New York Times Magazine article on infertility and surrogacy, a Feministe blog post writes that infertility is actually a “complicated problem, and how ladies deal with it is fraught with a whole series of social justice implications,” including problems related to class. The post says, “It’s problematic that the article included relatively little context of the class concerns tied up in access to infertility treatments. Instead, infertility is again represented as a rich white woman’s problem.” The blog says that “when we talk about reproduction in a justice-based framework, it’s very difficult to argue for a system where more powerful females with greater freedom of ‘choice’ have the liberty to use other women’s bodies for their reproductive ends.” It adds that reproductive rights extend to the “right to have children, … yet many ladies with fertility concerns find themselves marginalized and ignored.” Girls of “all classes” are affected by infertility, but in vitro treatments are “incredibly expensive and often require out of pocket payment, making it inaccessible for many girls,” the blog says. In addition, the blog entry says that there is “a lot about surrogacy itself that is deeply problematic.” The post continues that it is “almost universally a wealthier family paying a lower-income woman for use of her body, and it is hard to argue that there isn’t an element of economic coercion involved.” The blog continues, “Obviously, all of the females choosing to act as surrogates aren’t suffering from false consciousness; they’re making rational decisions based on constrained circumstances … But how constrained must circumstances be before we say enough?” The blog entry says that surrogacy is “exploitative on its face,” but “there has to be some way to outsource pregnancy where the rights and interest of all parties are protected.” The blog also discusses reaction towards the photographs that accompanied the Times Magazine article — which juxtapose “the clear class distinctions” between Kuczynski and the surrogate — and readers’ comments on Kuczynski’s choice to use a surrogate (Feministe.com, 12/8).

~ “Deciding the Fate of Frozen Embryos,” Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times‘ Well blog: The “chance to become biological parents” through in vitro fertilization has been “given to countless couples, rendered infertile by cancer, illness or nature,” but “many of them remain torn over the fate of frozen embryos that they no longer need,” Parker-Pope writes in a post on a recent Times article on embryo donation. She adds that “many folks who are done having children are finding it harder than they ever expected to decide the fate of those embryos.” The Times article examined results of a survey that found many fertility patients had been dissatisfied with essentially the most typical options for frozen embryos that they did not plan to use. Parker-Pope invites readers to discuss the article, asking, “Have you considered or opted for in-vitro fertilization? What decision did you make about how to dispose of unneeded frozen embryos?” (Parker-Pope, New York Times‘ Well blog, 12/8).

~ “Two Pro-Life Wins in Louisiana Over the Weekend,” Karen Cross and Tim Wymore, National Right to Life blog: “Between the contested Minnesota senate race and the two Louisiana house races, pro-life citizens have had good reason to pay attention to politics well into December,” Cross and Wymore write in a blog entry. In accordance with the blog, abortion-rights opponent Anh “Joseph” Cao (R) defeated Louisiana 2nd district incumbent Rep. William Jefferson (D) — who supports abortion rights — by 49.6% to 46.8%. In addition, abortion-rights opponent John Fleming (R) defeated Paul Carmouche (D) by 48% to 47.7% for the 4th district congressional seat. The Minnesota Senate race between abortion-rights supporter Al Franken (D) and abortion-rights opponent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) is not finalized with one tally indicating Coleman as the winner, according to Cross and Wymore. However, Cross and Wymore write that the “margin has ebbed and flowed on almost every day ballots as the two campaigns jostle over allegedly ‘missing’ ballots and challenges to individual ballots.” Cross and Wymore conclude that if Coleman wins, he “will be another valuable pro-life vote inside the Senate, which has already lost several pro-life members this year. His victory, along with that of pro-life Georgia Sen. [Saxby] Chambliss (R) last week, Cao’s and Fleming’s, would make a welcome ending to a long election year” (Cross/Wymore, National Right to Life blog, 12/8).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the whole Day-to-day Women’s Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Well being Policy Report is really a free of charge service of the National Partnership for Ladies & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

Newsweek in its Dec. 15 problem examines the possible effect of new, noninvasive tests for Down syndrome on the number of abortions that result from positive tests for the disease. About 90% of women currently choose abortion following a positive test for the condition, and about 5,000 fetuses that test positive for Down syndrome are delivered annually. Current tests for the disease include blood screens and ultrasounds, which are then confirmed with tests like amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling — tests some females forgo because with the slightly increased risk of miscarriage — in accordance with Newsweek. However, new, noninvasive tests may soon become available that “pose no harm to fetuses or mothers,” Newsweek reports. Some antiabortion-rights and disability advocates “worry” that if the new, noninvasive tests — which might be made available next year — become widespread, they could result in more Down syndrome diagnoses and abortions, as well as a decrease inside the population of individuals with Down syndrome and a drop in support for girls who carry such pregnancies to term, Newsweek reports.

Meanwhile, as “technology has advanced, doctors’ education about Down syndrome has lagged behind,” based on Newsweek. Brian Skoto — a pediatrics resident at Boston’s Children’s Hospital who has studied how doctors tell patients about sensitive diagnoses — stated, “Even among obstetrics fellows, 45% stated their training in how to deliver a [Down syndrome] diagnoses was barely adequate or nonexistent.” According to Newsweek, a study published in 2000 in Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights found that 23% of doctors said they tried to influence women’s decisions following a Down syndrome diagnosis, usually recommending abortion. In addition, a federal law that requires physicians to provide adoption and medical information to women who receive prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome or other genetic conditions stalled until noninvasive tests “put it on the front burner and turned up the degrees,” Newsweek reports. Skoto adds that antiabortion rights advocates “believed that women making informed decisions might be more apt to continue their pregnancies. And folks who had been pro-choice saw the bill as pro-information but not telling doctors what to do.” Some disability advocates hope that funding from the law will go into effect about the same time as the new genetic tests are available, based on Newsweek. The piece also profiled a family who has a child with Down syndrome (Carmichael, Newsweek, 12/8).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You’ll be able to view the whole Day-to-day Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery here. The Day-to-day Women’s Well being Policy Report is a free service with the National Partnership for Girls & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

Antiabortion-rights advocates are lobbying state and local governments to reduce public funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America chapters and clinics, saying that the not-for-profit group has considerable cash on hand and should not be a recipient of sparse public funds during an economic crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. About one-third of Planned Parenthood’s budget comes from government contracts and grants — about $335 million annually — which subsidizes contraception, sex education and non-abortion-related wellness care for low-income females. The organization also is the nation’s largest abortion provider, and critics argue that public funds “indirectly subsidize abortions by keeping hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics afloat,” the Journal reports. Although conservative Christian groups — including the Family Research Council — are leading the new lobbying effort, the groups’ argument “focuses more on economic than moral concerns,” according to the Journal. The advocates have been portraying Planned Parenthood as a wealthy organization that does not need taxpayer assistance. In 2007, Planned Parenthood reported record revenue and a $115 million budget surplus, and it is developing “a network of elegant wellness centers to attract middle-class clients,” the Journal reports.

Planned Parenthood says that its services address a critical need for well being care, especially at a time when more folks are losing their jobs and, consequently, their well being insurance. In the past, cuts in public funding have forced Planned Parenthood chapters to close, increase fees or reduce subsidized contraception. In recent weeks, Planned Parenthood chapters in Fulton County, Ga. — which includes Atlanta — and Sarasota County, Fla. — which covers southwest and central Florida — lost public funds because of tight local budgets. Fulton County’s chapter lost a $420,000 contract as part of statewide wellness care cuts, and Sarasota County lost annual grants of as much as $30,000 that funded sex education programs. Former Sarasota County commissioner Paul Mercier said, “It had nothing to do with Planned Parenthood’s mission. It had everything to do with them not needing the funding.”

Meanwhile, FRC is developing materials to assist grassroots advocates scrutinize Planned Parenthood financial reports and present elected officials with detailed reports about the assets and revenue of local chapters. In addition, FRC has sent letters to 1,200 state lawmakers describing Planned Parenthood’s finances and urging a “second look” at public funding for the group. Thomas McClusky — vice president for government affairs at FRC — stated that the organization is “very limited” as to what it can do at the federal level but that there are “a lot of victories to be had” on the local level. FRC has focused its efforts on officials in states it believes are likely to be receptive, including Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky.

Planned Parenthood officials say the lobbying campaign is misleading lawmakers about the group’s finances. Barbara Zdravecky, CEO with the Sarasota County chapter, said, “Our audits look pretty fat, and they’ve used that against us.” In reality, operating revenue is down and the chapter is running at a deficit, she said. Zdravecky and others argue that cutting public funding to the organization is short-sighted and will ultimately increase strain on taxpayers because services such as contraception and cancer screenings will be inaccessible to low-income women (Simon, Wall Street Journal, 12/10).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You are able to view the whole Everyday Women’s Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery here. The Every day Women’s Health Policy Report can be a cost-free service with the National Partnership for Girls & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

3 (2 votes)

The New York Times on Wednesday published letters to the editor in response to a Dec.7 opinion piece by Ross Douthat that examined whether the antiabortion movement can be blamed for the Republican Party’s losses in the 2008 presidential election. Summaries of two with the letters appear below.

~ Jennifer Blei Stockman: Leaders of the abortion-rights movement “need to understand that pro-choice Republicans are not absolutists,” Blei Stockman, co-chair of the Republican Majority for Choice, writes in a letter to the editor. In accordance with Blei Stockman, 78% of Republicans polled in August said abortion concerns ought to be decided by a woman, not the government, and an “overwhelming 66% of self-described ‘pro-life’ voters believe abortion must be decided by a woman.” She adds that the Republican Party’s “approach on the issue of personal choice must fall in line with its core tenet of smaller government — less intrusion in our pocketbooks and our personal lives.” Blei Stockman continues that Douthat’s “attack on the pro-choice movement can be a ruse, and his encouragement of opportunistic extreme policies will hurt the GOP further.” She concludes, “If the GOP is to succeed in rebuilding its broken party, it needs to move past a failed plan for party realignment toward the extreme and revive its broad appeal to its true moderate majority” (Blei Stockman, New York Times, 12/10).

~ Paula Hillard: Douthat is “out of touch with this country when he characterizes abortion bans and mandatory parental involvement as ‘compromise,’” Paula Hillard, a gynecologist and board member of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Well being, writes in a letter to the editor. Hillard writes that she is “grateful” to voters who defeated the proposed abortion ban on the South Dakota ballot and the California parental notification initiative “for keeping my patients’ decisions about their health private.” She concludes that “[o]verturning Roe v. Wade would not be a compromise, but a repudiation of what Americans believe about abortion” (Hillard, New York Times, 12/10).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Everyday Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Everyday Women’s Well being Policy Report is really a free of charge service with the National Partnership for Ladies & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

The possibility of a second referendum in Ireland regarding the nation’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty — an agreement that would reorganize governance with the European Union — is expected to be considered on Thursday at a summit in Brussels, London’s Guardian reports. Twenty-five with the European Union’s 27 member states have ratified the agreement; Irish voters in June rejected the treaty by 53% to 46% (Traynor, Guardian, 12/9). Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin said Irish voters’ reasons for rejecting the treaty included concerns that it would threaten Ireland’s traditional neutrality and that it would impose on Irish laws, including those prohibiting abortion. In accordance with Martin, 1 of several problems that contributed to voters’ rejection of the treaty was a concern about a “competence creep” by the European Court of Justice, which some in Ireland view as gradually encroaching on the country’s domestic jurisdiction, especially in terms of Irish abortion law (Phillips, euobserver.com, 12/9).

The Guardian reports that the Irish government has been “under pressure” from other E.U. countries to “find a way of agreeing towards the treaty,” which requires ratification from all member nations to take effect. The Irish constitution states that the treaty only can be approved through a popular vote. French President Nicholas Sarkozy, chair with the European Union, hopes to unveil a deal in the summit on Thursday in which Ireland would hold a second referendum “in return for specific promises aimed at reassuring Irish voters,” based on the Guardian. The deal is expected to include assurances that the treaty will not impinge on the country’s abortion ban, military neutrality or authority to set tax rates if it holds a second referendum, the Guardian reports. Martin said he “hope[s] by the end of the week to be in a position to agree [to] a road map forward” (Guardian, 12/9). However, Martin would not commit to saying a referendum would be the chosen course of action, adding, “There are perhaps other ways [to approve the treaty], but they are fraught with risks” (euobserver.com, 12/9).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the whole Daily Women’s Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery here. The Every day Women’s Health Policy Report is actually a totally free service with the National Partnership for Females & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

Although most U.S. presidents enact “midnight” regulations as they leave office, President Bush is “operating in the far edge of reasonableness” by pushing through administrative orders including the proposed HHS conscience rule, which would “take a sledgehammer to 40 years of carefully constructed court decisions that balance the rights of health workers against the rights of patients,” Wichita Eagle columnist Davis Merritt writes in an opinion piece. In accordance with Merritt, it is “easy enough to argue” that health workers must not be required to perform procedures that they consider immoral, and it is “also easy” for institutions and medical staff to inform patients about what procedures they will perform. However, “patients in need of legal medical treatment have rights, too, and that complicates matters,” Merritt writes. He adds that “Bush’s last minute tossing of 1 more bone to social conservatives ensures” that President-elect Barack Obama’s administration “will face an abortion controversy in its earliest months.” Based on Merritt, although the conscience rule will likely be rescinded by Obama “[w]ithout question,” it will be “at the unnecessary cost of yet more divisiveness within Congress and the nation.” Merritt concludes that the rule creates a “dangerous diversion of attention” from other concerns “in favor of perpetuating debate over a philosophical problem that can never be resolved within the way social conservatives insist” (Merritt, Wichita Eagle, 12/9).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the whole Every day Women’s Well being Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Everyday Women’s Well being Policy Report is really a free of charge service with the National Partnership for Girls & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

A second referendum in Ireland regarding the nation’s ratification with the Lisbon Treaty — an agreement that would reorganize governance with the European Union — is going to be held before the end of October 2009, the French government announced Thursday at a summit in Brussels, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Ireland agreed to hold a second vote after changes to the treaty were made that would “ease Irish fears that the E.U. would strip away long-held Irish provisions, for example those that outlaw abortion and guarantee workers’ rights, and would dilute wellness and education standards.”

The AP/Inquirer reports that the Lisbon Treaty was “in limbo” after Irish voters rejected it by referendum in June. The treaty must be ratified by all 27 E.U. members before it can “come into force,” and 24 members already have ratified it. Based on a document, written by current E.U. President France, that outlines the changes to be made towards the treaty, Ireland’s government is “committed to seeking ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.” A formal presentation of the treaty changes sought by Ireland is expected to be made by Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen later during Thursday’s summit (Brand, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/11).

Dick Roche, Irish European affairs minister, said a second referendum on the treaty is the only option “from a constitutional point of view.” However, he added that the government will not be “fixing a date for a new referendum. We’ll only do that once the concerns voiced by the Irish individuals who voted ‘No’ within the first referendum have been addressed.”

According to AFP/Yahoo! News, leaders at Thursday’s summit will argue that the treaty is “considered necessary in order to assist the enlarged Union to function more efficiently, more democratically and more effectively including in international affairs.” In addition, AFP/Yahoo! News reports that E.U. leaders will try to have it in full effect “by the end of 2009″ (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/11).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the whole Every day Women’s Well being Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery here. The Daily Women’s Well being Policy Report is really a free of charge service with the National Partnership for Girls & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

People “of good will,” including Roman Catholic bishops, have “pledged our prayers and our willingness to cooperate in advancing the widespread great of all” following the election of President-elect Barack Obama, but the “common great is not served by making wrongs, like abortion, into ‘rights,’” Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando writes in an opinion piece inside the Lakeland Ledger.

Wenski writes that Catholics and “others who support human life from conception [until] natural death” will “never accept Roe v. Wade as a permanent fixture of constitutional law” or “stop working to restore recognition for the human rights with the unborn child.” Wenski adds that the Freedom of Choice Act, which Obama has said he will sign, “would further enshrine the bad law of Roe v. Wade in bad legislation more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.” In accordance with Wenski, if FOCA “or a version of it were to pass,” the “modest restraints and regulations (including parental notification) on the abortion industry would be abolished.”

Wenski writes that FOCA’s potential passage “would only further divide our nation and do nothing to address the serious problems that call for a broad consensus of all its citizens to solve,” adding that Obama “promised to be a ‘uniter’ and not a divider” (Wenski, Lakeland Ledger, 12/11).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You’ll be able to view the entire Everyday Women’s Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Wellness Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Girls & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

NPR’s “All Issues Considered” on Thursday examined the expectations President-elect Barack Obama faces from abortion-rights advocates who supported him during the campaign. NPR reports that although Obama has made it clear that he supports abortion rights, he also has pledged to find “common ground” between abortion-rights opponents and supporters. Based on NPR, “Pretty much each president says he wants to find typical ground on abortion and other reproductive well being concerns, except that there’s not that much frequent ground to be found. What you’ll find instead are expectations from the pro-choice groups that supported [Obama] during the campaign,” including NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The groups want Obama to reverse the “Mexico City policy,” also known as the “global gag rule,” which bans federal funding to international family planning programs that use their own funds to provide abortion services or lobby their governments regarding abortion rights. In addition, abortion-rights groups expect Obama to concern an executive order overturning President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, stated, “We’ve had eight years of George W. Bush anti-choice efforts, and there’s got to be, first, initial work in reversing all with the negative that has happened over these past eight years.”

Meanwhile, the anti-abortion rights groups “are already gearing up to defend their ground” in congressional battles related to reproductive well being, NPR reports. Douglas Johnson, federal legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, stated, “We’re going to mount a very vigorous defense with the existing pro-life policies. The ban on partial birth abortions, the Hyde Amendment and these other policies have broad popular support and they were won with great effort, and we definitely are going to defend to the best of our ability.”

NPR reports that abortion-rights groups had a similarly “ambitious agenda and expectations to match” when President Clinton took office, but they “quickly discovered they lacked both the votes and the public support to make many of the changes they wanted.” Keenan stated, “You’ve got to be practical. You’ve got to be realistic here.” She added, “And we’ve got to make sure that the agenda is not divisive, that the tone with the debate changes, and that we make sure that we can find areas that we can agree on first.” Cecile Richards, president of PPFA, said, “We know that inside the reproductive well being care arena, there’s so much you could do by providing affordable family planning, providing affordable cervical cancer screenings and breast cancer screenings, which we do hundreds of thousands of each and every year” (Rovner, “All Things Considered”, NPR, 12/11).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. It is possible to view the entire Everyday Women’s Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery here. The Day-to-day Women’s Health Policy Report is actually a cost-free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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Healthcare Prof:

4.2 (5 votes)

Article Opinions:1 posts
The Roman Catholic Church on Friday released a new document that condemns efforts by infertile couples to adopt or implant frozen embryos, saying that such methods are equally immoral as destroying embryos for stem cell research, USA Today reports. The document, titled “Dignitas Personae (Human Dignity): On Certain Bioethical Questions,” states, “The desire for a child cannot justify the ‘production’ of offspring, just as the desire not to have a child cannot justify the abandonment or destruction of a child once he or she has been conceived.” It adds that diagnosing embryos for diseases or genetic flaws before implantation is “shameful and reprehensible” and that such techniques, like prescribing or using contraception that prevents implantation, lead to “the sin of abortion.” The document does not offer a clear solution for what to do with currently frozen embryos, which it says “represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.”

The document updates and expands prior church teachings on contraception and reproduction. The new statement is the first authoritative document on biomedical reproductive technologies signed by a pope since 1987, USA Today reports. John Haas, president with the National Catholic Bioethics Center, stated, “Back then, we didn’t have 500,000 frozen embryos. No one was talking about embryonic stem cell research or pre-implantation embryonic diagnosis.” Based on Haas, some Catholics might be surprised by the church’s stance against IVF and embryo adoption because “most Catholics believe the church wants them to have a lot of children.” Steve Bozza, an outreach worker at the Diocese of Camden, N.J., who advises infertile couples, said Catholic couples “probably know the church’s teachings, but the pain people suffer when they can’t conceive causes them to turn inward.” He added, “The church is the last place they go. They go to their physicians, who offer them immoral choices.” Richard Doerflinger, head of antiabortion-rights activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the church is “not imposing a Catholic vision on America” but is “offering a more human vision” (Grossman, USA Today, 12/12).

Reprinted with type permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You are able to view the entire Day-to-day Women’s Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Everyday Women’s Wellness Policy Report is really a free service with the National Partnership for Girls & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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