Wanted: New Domestic AIDS Policy

The AIDS Epidemic: What we haven’t learned

Today is World AIDS day. With the Bush administration on its way out there is hope that we might begin to think big about preventing and even curing AIDS. Lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research will open up some possibilities. But prevention and education remain the keys to slowing the spread of HIV. According to Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, “we can’t treat our way out of this epidemic.”

And even though major progress has been made in the last couple of decades, rates of infection continue to rise. For every person receiving treatment today, three new people get themselves infected.

On GRITtv journalist and author Linda Villarosa, activist and editor of POZ magazine Laura Whitehorn, Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, Senior Consultant for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and Rep. Barbara Lee discuss recent breakthroughs in AIDS treatment and how national healthcare policy and education can influence prevention strategies.

How would single payer healthcare change the way those with chronic illnesses, including AIDS, are treated? Protesters at the America’s Health Insurance Plan’s (AHIP) convention in San Francisco say a lot would change. To learn more visit guaranteedhealthcare.org.

 

Choice Words I’ve Been Waiting For

Yesterday in Florida Barack Obama briefly turned the topic to abortion. Though his record has been staunchly pro-choice, he has not spoken about abortion enough in this election. I wanted to hear him address Roe v. Wade specifically. He not only did that, he took it a step further and mentioned Supreme Court Justices.

‘Change means a president who will stand up for choice, who understands that five men on the Supreme Court don’t know better than women and their families and their doctors about what’s best for their health,’ he said. ‘That’s why I fought so hard in Illinois and Washington to stop laws that overturn Roe v Wade. That’s why I am committed to appointing judges who understand how law operates in our daily lives, judges who will uphold the values at the core of our constitution. That’s why I will never back down from defending a woman’s right to choose.’ (The Hotline)

For more about Obama and abortion check out On the Issues.

 

McCain: Make Health Care Like Banking Industry

The gods are conspiring against John McCain this year. There was bad weather when he was trying to visit an oil platform in the Gulf, all those crazy zealots prayed for rain at the DNC but instead got Ike at the RNC, and then came the economy. On the day of one of the biggest economic crises in modern history, McCain made the mistake of claiming that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

And now this. Paul Krugman of the NY Times points out an unfortunately timed piece by McCain in the current September/October 2008 issue of Contingencies magazine, in which he suggests deregulating the health care market just like the banking industry.

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

Oops.

Of course this view is nothing new in the McCain camp, just bad timing. A few weeks back, the architect of McCain’s health care plan insisted that Americans shouldn’t use the word ‘uninsured’ because we all have ER access. Did you know they also want to wipe out your employer-provided health care plan? And then tax you on the benefits you receive. Really. It’s the tax increase no one is talking about.

And just imagine the world of hurt our seniors would be in today if McCain and Bush had succeeded in privatizing Social Security. Though he has contradicted himself several times about whether or not he supports privatization. One thing is clear, he’s not clear on what Social Security is or how it works. Yet he still wants to gamble away our retirement security.

 

What’s McCain Hiding About His Health?

Watch Brave New Films‘ video about the secrecy surrounding McCain’s health records and several doctors’ views about the importance of full disclosure. Sign the open letter requesting that McCain release his medical records to the public.

UPDATE: Leighton Woodhouse agrees that

John McCain’s health is the most underreported, underdebated, and underappreciated risk factor in a potential McCain presidency.

 

McCain-Palin: Extreme & Dangerous

Most Americans are pro-choice and even more support abortion rights in the case of rape or incest.

Watch this video and join the campaign to meet the real McCain/Palin, though their extreme anti-choice stances aren’t getting much play in the media. Is it any wonder, Palin is more popular among men than women?

Do we really want a President and a Vice President who are so out of touch with what the majority of Americans believe? Again?

 

Protect Women’s Health

(From the ACLU)

On August 21, 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released proposed regulations that could seriously undermine access to basic reproductive health services, including birth control and abortion.

The rule leaves open the possibility that — based on religious beliefs — institutions and individuals can deny women access to birth control. It also permits individuals to refuse to provide information and counseling about basic heath care services.  And it expands existing laws by permitting a wider range of health care professionals to refuse to provide even referrals for abortions.

The public comment period on these insidious regulations is open until September 20. Help generate a massive outcry. Submit your public comments to HHS by using the link above.

Let’s work together to keep individuals’ ideology separate from our health care.

Protect women’s health!  Sign the petition and pass it along today.

 

Fighting Back

Senators Patty Murray and Hillary Clinton are speaking out against Bush’s proposed attack on women’s reproductive rights. They are calling on the secretary of Health and Human Services to block Bush’s plan to put ideology over science.

The text of their letter reads:

Secretary Michael O. Leavitt
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Mr. Secretary:

It has come to our attention that the Department of Health and Human Services may be preparing draft regulations that would create new obstacles for women seeking contraceptive services.
One of the most troubling aspects of the proposed rules is the overly-broad definition of “abortion.” This definition would allow health-care corporations or individuals to classify many common forms of contraception – including the birth control pill, emergency contraception and IUDs – “abortions” and therefore to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it.

As a consequence, these draft regulations could disrupt state laws securing women’s access to birth control. They could jeopardize federal programs like Medicaid and Title X that provide family-planning services to millions of women. They could even undermine state laws that ensure survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.

We strongly urge you to reconsider these regulations before they are released. We are extremely concerned by this proposal’s potential to affect millions of women’s reproductive health.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely yours,
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi added her voice to the charge:

If the Administration goes through with this draft proposal, it will launch a dangerous assault on women’s health.

The majority of Americans oppose this out of touch position that redefines contraception as abortion and represents a sustained pattern of the Bush Administration to reject medical and sound science in favor of a misguided ideology that has no place in our government.

I urge the President to reject this policy and join with Democrats to focus on preventing unintended pregnancies and reducing the need for abortion through increasing access to family planning services and access to affordable birth control.

Bush should make up his mind whether or not he thinks individuals are smart enough to make our own decisions or not. Just last week he said that he wasn’t urging Americans to conserve fuel because we’re smart enough to make our own decisions. Right. Unless you’re a woman and your reproductive health is involved. Then he has no problem interfering.

UPDATE: Hillary Clinton has a guest blog piece up at RH Reality Check.

 

Stop Bush’s Attack on Reproductive Health

Please click this link to urge your members of Congress to oppose Bush’s attack on birth control.

For more information, check out RH Reality Check.

 

Bush Mixing Religion and Medicine, Again

The Bush administration is proposing that recipients of federal health money be required to sign written certifications that they will not discriminate against applicants who are morally opposed to abortion and birth control. Read the complete NY Times article here.

In the proposal, obtained by The New York Times, the administration says it could cut off federal aid to individuals or entities that discriminate against people who object to abortion on the basis of ‘religious beliefs or moral convictions.’

RH Reality Check points out that this proposal redefines pregnancy in such a way that it may cut off women’s access to forms of birth control used by 40% of women.

Up until now, the federal government followed the definition of pregnancy accepted by the American Medical Association and our nation’s pregnancy experts, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is: pregnancy begins at implantation. With this proposal, however, HHS is dismissing medical experts and opting instead to accept a definition of pregnancy based on polling data. It now claims that pregnancy begins at some biologically unknowable moment (there’s no test to determine if a woman’s egg has been fertilized). Under these new standards there would be no way for a woman to prove she’s not pregnant. Thus, any woman could be denied contraception under HHS’ new science. The other rarely discussed issue here is whether hormonal contraception even does what the religious right claims. There is no scientific evidence that hormonal methods of birth control can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. This argument is the basis upon which the religious right hopes to include the 40% of the birth control methods Americans use, such as the pill, the patch, the shot, the ring, the IUD, and emergency contraception, under the classification “abortion.” Even the “pro-life” movement’s most respected physicians cautioned the movement about making these claims.

And the result of these changes? Reduced access for low-income women.

Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, which represents providers, said, ‘The proposed definition of abortion is so broad that it would cover many types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and emergency contraception.’

‘We worry that under the proposal, contraceptive services would become less available to low-income and uninsured women,’ Ms. Gallagher said.

Indeed, among other things the proposal expresses concern about state laws that require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims who request it.

Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said, ‘Why on earth is the Bush administration trying to discourage doctors and clinics from providing contraception to women who need it?’ (NY Times)

Even the global gag rule has exceptions for the case of rape. This new domestic gag rule appears even more severe. The majority of this country supports the Supreme Court’s decision about Roe v Wade, more people identify as ‘pro-choice’ than not, so why is this administration injecting its narrow religious views into the field of medicine? Stop withholding money from organizations that provide necessary health care to women and families based politics and ideology.

 

Don’t Want to Talk About It & Can’t Recall

First of all, John McCain is the most absent senator, showing up for his job less than 40% of the time. Second, he can’t seem to remember the rare votes he makes when he is there. So why exactly would we want to elect him to an even more important office?

As you probably heard, Carly Fiorina made a gaffe today by bringing up the issue of health insurance coverage for contraceptives, which McCain does not support. She also mentioned that women would like to have a “choice,” which McCain also opposes.

When asked about the incident, McCain responded:

“I certainly do not want to discuss that issue,” the presidential candidate said when a reporter asked him about it on his campaign bus, the “Straight Talk Express.”

That’s funny, John McCain, because it’s an issue that many women (and men) care deeply about. Even Fiorina admits she’s been hearing about the issue “from a lot of women.”

When pressed further on the issue, McCain pulled out the ol’ reliable “I don’t recall,” which seems to have worked well for him in the past.

When asked Wednesday if he had voted in the Senate against a proposal to require insurance companies to cover contraceptive products, McCain replied, “I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I don’t recall the vote… I don’t usually duck an issue, but I’ll try to get back to you.” (Read the full article from AP here)

Since when is “I don’t know” an acceptable answer? I guess if I had changed my mind this many times, I’d have a hard time remembering where I stand as well.

That’s it, John, keep playing dumb. It worked for Bush.

UPDATE: This video makes me think he’s not playing dumb. He honestly has no idea what his opinion is on the issue.