Blogs Comment On Health Care Reform Legislation, Congressional Funding For D.C., Other Topics

The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "Just the Facts, Sir: The False Dichotomy of Catholics vs. "Pro-Choice" on Common Ground," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: In anticipation of the release of the White House"s "common ground" proposal to reduce the need for abortion and help prevent unintended pregnancies, "numerous members of the male pontificator commentariat are trying to spark anxiety by claiming Obama will have to make a choice between "the Catholic vote" and "the pro-choice community,"" Jacobson writes. However, "[n]othing could be further from the truth," she states, noting that Obama received the majority of the Catholic vote in the election and that a "majority of Catholic voters approve of [his] performance to date." There is "no danger" of Obama losing Catholic support "on this particular issue, as long as the administration makes clear its values and principles and goals and objectives, and as long as it sticks to the facts," Jacobson continues. She lists several steps that the White House should take with its proposal, including making it clear that the administration is "committed to evidence-based policies in public health" and that "the best way to reduce unintended pregnancies, and hence the need for abortion, is to provide universal access to prevention services." By focusing on evidence-based public health policies, the Obama administration "can, in the long run, actually bring profound change to this debate," Jacobson writes. She concludes that "evidence-based policies put into practice will achieve many of the goals we seek and take the air out of the ideological fight in which we have been engaged" (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 7/2).~ "Is Denying Women Abortions the Price of Bipartisanship?" Igor Volsky, Think Progress" "The Wonk Room": Volsky writes that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Republican colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee reportedly are pushing health care reform legislation that would require insurers participating in a new national health insurance exchange to exclude coverage for abortion services. According to Volsky, the committee"s version of the bill would be the only piece of health care reform legislation "that specifically prohibits -- takes away, rations, if you will -- a medical service." Meanwhile, health care reform legislation being considered by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the House"s three committees that govern health care "leaves the coverage decisions -- the design of the so-called essential benefit packages" -- to the HHS secretary or an expert committee. Volsky notes that approximately one in three U.S. women will have an abortion by age 45 and that private insurers usually cover the procedure. He writes, "As Republicans often argue, Congress should leave benefits decisions to the medical professionals." He adds that "if denying abortion services to women is the price of bipartisanship, then perhaps winning those one or two Republican votes isn"t worth the price of jeopardizing women"s health and well-being" (Volsky, "The Wonk Room," Think Progress, 7/6).~ "House Moves To Lift Bans On Abortion Funding, Needle Exchange, Domestic Partnership and Medical Marijuana in D.C.," Choice Words: The fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill currently under review in the House "would lift a number of reproductive justice-related funding bans" in the District of Columbia, including a ban on using locally-raised funds for abortion, the blog entry states. "Access to abortion in D.C. has been severely limited by anti-choice Congresspeople playing politics with the district," the blog says, noting that Congress has "supreme authority" over the district"s funding. The bill also would end bans on using funds for certain other purposes, such as domestic partnership registration and benefits, according to the blog. The blog concludes that the "fight to lift these funding bans is just beginning" and is an "important first step towards protecting reproductiv