What We're Reading - July 12
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Good morning, everyone! Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted (once again) to repeal the health care law. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards joined Martin Bashir on MSNBC to discuss the role of women’s health in the upcoming election. Make sure to watch the clip and then check out what we’re reading this morning…
The fight for increased access to health care continues in the states. “Editorial: Your health care vs. your governor” – “In a pointless piece of political theater, the House voted yet again on Wednesday to repeal President Obama's health care law, knowing that the repeal measure will never get past the Democratic-led Senate or Obama's veto pen. Not so meaningless, however, are recent decisions of several states to resist what ought to be some of the less controversial aspects of ObamaCare. They're refusing to set up easy-to-use exchanges that would help residents make insurance choices. And they're turning down a Medicaid expansion, which will deny insurance to millions who can't afford coverage and shift the cost of their care to people who have it. The balky governors and legislators, overwhelmingly Republicans, complain about cost and state sovereignty, but for the citizens all that matters is what they'll get or what they'll lose, and they'll lose a lot. For example, more than a quarter of Texans have no health insurance, which puts the state last in the nation in coverage. You'd think Gov. Rick Perry would be looking for ways to fix that. Instead, he's just saying no.”
Mississippi health center doors will stay open. “Judge Maintains Injunction Against Mississippi Law on Abortion Clinics” – “JACKSON, Miss. — Lawyers debated before a federal judge on Wednesday whether a new law governing abortion clinics in Mississippi should remain blocked or go into effect and thus set in motion a process that could lead to the closing of the state’s lone abortion clinic. Before a quiet but full courtroom, Judge Daniel P. Jordan III of United States District Court, a Republican appointee, calmly but pointedly pressed the lawyers, who were urging him either to lift a temporary injunction against the law he set in place on July 1, the day the law was to go into effect, or maintain it. At the end of the hearing, Judge Jordan allowed the injunction to stand while he considered more evidence. He gave no indication of when he would deliver a broader ruling, but lawyers expected it soon. The law, which the Legislature passed by broad margins last spring, requires physicians at any abortion clinic in the state to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Because there is only one clinic and the two physicians who perform abortions there do not have such privileges, the law could end up stopping nearly all abortions in Mississippi.”
The critical nature of birth control access abroad will be a focus of World Population Day. “World Population Day: Can women find birth control if they want it?” – “Around the world, 222 million women would like to avoid or delay pregnancy but lack access to contraception, according to the United Nations Population Fund. That number is one reason the UNFPA chose ‘reproductive health’ as the theme for this year’s World Population Day. Birth control ‘is a very controversial issue because very often people relate this to population control,’ said Edilberto Loaiza, senior monitoring and evaluation adviser in the UNFPA. ‘But many women are being denied the right to decide freely when and how many children to have. That’s what it is about.’ Contraception was a popular item on the development agenda throughout the 1970s and 1980s. But it fell out of favor in the 1990s, when epidemiologists began to fear that AIDS would kill a catastrophic number of people, particularly in Africa, according John Bongaarts, vice president of the Population Council. ‘But that didn’t happen,’ Bongaarts explained. ‘In fact, the population of Africa continues to grow rapidly. ‘And now, contraception is back in vogue as a potential way to ease environmental concerns, such as dwindling natural resources, especially in poor countries. Economic incentives also play a role, Bongaarts said, because fewer young children mean fewer schools and hospitals to build.”
