Blogs Comment On Antiabortion Super Bowl Ad, Health Reform Prospects, Other Topics

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

~ "CBS To Air First Super Bowl Abortion Ad," Elizabeth Gettelman, Mother Jones' "Mojo": Former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow "is taking televangelism to a whole new level" by appearing with his mother in a Super Bowl commercial sponsored by the antiabortion-rights group Focus on the Family, Gettelman writes. In the ad, "Tim's mom will tell America how she was young and not sure she wanted a baby, but then she had Tim, who's now a star," she writes, adding, "Ergo, you'd be crazy to consider an abortion, ladies, and gents and those not of child-bearing age, don't even think about supporting a woman's right to choose, because how could you choose not to gestate and give life to a person as successful and handsome as Tim Tebow?" However, "[y]ou cannot tell a woman that she might give birth to the next superstar, the next president, the next great thing, or even the next maybe-not-great thing but still-deserving-of-your-love human being," Gettelman writes. She continues that people "won't hear in this commercial ... that a woman might die giving birth, or go broke after she has the child, or lose her own future and compromise her kid's." Gettelman adds, "All these things are 'maybes,' and women and their partners in this situation are left with difficult, horrible choices no one wants to be beset with" (Gettelman, "Mojo," Mother Jones, 1/22).

~ "Too Early for a Lesson? Health Care Reform and the Right to Abortion," Bethany Sousa, National Women's Law Center's "Womenstake": While there are "important questions" regarding the future of health care reform, "let's not let our devotion to [the issue] allow us to forget about" the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe v. Wade, NWLC senior counsel Sousa writes. Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation (HR 3962, HR 3590) include restrictions on abortion coverage, and "[a]lmost as troubling, the debate over abortion coverage has meant watching our administration, some of our congressmen and women, and members of the public discuss our nation's supposed aversion to public funding for abortion," she writes. The fact that restrictions on federal funding for abortion services have been in place for over three decades has "somehow ... been contorted into the idea that the Hyde Amendment is an American principle that should not only be left alone, but should be imported into health care reform," Sousa says, adding that such restrictions have "set a dangerous precedent for abortion debates in the future." Sousa continues that the health reform debate "has unfortunately demonstrated that our work to ensure that all women, regardless of their income level, have a genuine choice about abortion is far from over" (Sousa, "Womenstake," National Women's Law Center, 1/22).














~ "Abortion Is Health Care," Joan Malin, Huffington Post blogs: Current versions of health reform legislation "contai[n] language that would essentially eliminate insurance coverage for any and all abortions, leaving women much worse off than they were before," Malin, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of New York City, writes. She adds, "Which leaves me begging the question: when will this country realize that abortion care is health care?" Malin continues that the "restrictive language in health care reform does nothing to change the reasons why women decide to get abortions; it only changes whether or not insurance policies will help pay for them." The language will "make it more difficult to obtain a safe abortion" and lead women to "delay care or resort to increasingly more desperate means to raise money for the procedure, or find someone who will perform the procedure at a price they can afford," according to Malin. "Abortion is a legal medical procedure, one so common that one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime," she continues, concluding, "Each woman faces her own unique situation when deciding whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. Ultimately though, that decision is about her health care" (Malin, Huffington Post blogs, 1/22).

~ "Roe v. Wade Supporter Scott Brown, Improbable Pro-Life Hero," David Gibson, Politics Daily's "Disputations": Although antiabortion-rights groups have celebrated the victory of Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-Mass.), he is actually a "firm supporter" of Roe v. Wade, according to Gibson, a religion journalist and member of the Religion Newswriters Association. Brown has said Roe is "the law of the land, and I don't plan on overturning it." Gibson adds that Brown's "language on the issue sounds much like that of" President Obama's. In addition, "Brown's Web site highlights the 'need to reduce the number of abortions in America' and his belief that 'there are people of good will on both sides of the issue and we ought to work together to support and promote adoption as an alternative to abortion.'" Gibson continues, "But such nuanced positions did not stop hardline antiabortion groups from pulling out the stops to get Brown elected." He notes that Massachusetts Citizens for Life "hailed Brown as a 'pro-life vote in the Senate' and put its muscle behind Brown's candidacy," while CatholicVoteAction "recorded a phone message on Brown's behalf to target independent voters." According to Gibson, "The political flexibility of religious conservatives in backing the pro-choice Brown certainly worked, and indeed may have put Brown over the top," but "it also revealed two other realities of modern American politics." First, that the "largely evangelical and conservative Catholic support for Brown and against health care reform contrasts sharply with the position of progressive evangelicals and the influential Catholic bishops of the United States, who have declared universal health care a 'pro-life issue.'" Secondly, "the same powerful forces that carried Brown to victory -- and that many religious conservatives embraced in their zeal to block Obama -- often pay little heed to moral issues like abortion," he writes (Gibson, "Disputations," Politics Daily, 1/24).

~ "Coakley's Lessons for Women," Dana Goldstein, Daily Beast's "Blogs and Stories": "From Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) successful grandstanding against abortion rights to Martha Coakley's stunning upset at the hands of the heretofore unknown Scott Brown, it's been a tough few months for women in Democratic politics," Goldstein writes. "All the bad news ... has left institutional feminism's top players wondering what it will take for female candidates and women's issues to win in 2010, and how they can help." According to Goldstein, the "key" will "be to find a feminist politics that looks forward." Goldstein highlights some "fresh female faces to watch in 2010." Among the candidates backed by abortion-rights groups are Lois Herr -- who is challenging Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) -- and Rhode Island state legislator Elizabeth Dennigan, who is running in the Democratic primary against antiabortion-rights Rep. Jim Langevin (Goldstein, "Blogs and Stories," Daily Beast, 1/22).

~ "It's Cervical Health Awareness Month: Are You Protecting Yours?," Morganne Rosenhaus, RH Reality Check: In honor of Cervical Health Awareness Month, Rosenhaus discusses the cervix's role in women's reproductive health. According to Rosenhaus, the cervix has four key functions: it "allows the passage of menstrual fluid"; aids fertility; provides protection for the uterus, upper reproductive tract and fetus; and could play a role in sexual pleasure. "Clearly the cervix is an important part of women's reproductive health and we want to keep it healthy, but in doing so we must also understand its health threats," Rosenhaus writes. Those threats include cervical cancer, the human papillomavirus and other sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia. To maintain cervical health, Rosenhaus recommends the cervical vaccines Cervarix or Gardasil, Pap tests, visits to the gynecologist and annual testing for STIs. "Instead of using only one month to expand awareness of cervical health, we should use every day to encourage women of all ages, and ourselves, to not only know the importance of the cervix, but also the ways to maintain a healthy cervix," Rosenhaus concludes (Rosenhaus, RH Reality Check, 1/25).


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View drug information on Cervarix [Human Papillomavirus Bivalent; Gardasil.