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Is There a War on Women's Health Care?
Some rights groups have called it a war against women -- a battle that has seen women's health providers in the US come under sustained attack from conservative groups.
Last week, the issue came to the fore again when one of the country's best-known breast cancer charities, the Susan G Komen foundation, decided to end funding to clinics run by Planned Parenthood.
Komen's actions triggered an avalanche of protests and donations for Planned Parenthood. Its supporters say the organisation was targeted because it provided abortions for women as part of its health care services.
The backlash eventually saw Komen claim to have reversed its decision, although future funding for Planned Parenthood is still far from assured.
The row points to a long-running assault from anti-abortion campaigners -- one which last year became lodged into the budget debate that almost shut down the US government.
Recently, the issue has widened beyond abortion, with conservatives wanting to end federal funding for family planning and contraceptive services.
Barack Obama, the US president, is not immune from criticism either after his administration blocked over-the-counter sales of the Plan B morning after pill to girls under 17 years of age, overruling the decision of the food and drug administration.
So, is women's health being damaged by politics in the US? Has the controversy over breast cancer funding to the Planned Parenthood organisation underlined the extent to which conservative groups in the US now influence women's health access?
Inside Story Americas, with Shihab Rattansi, discusses with: Hadley Heath, a senior policy analyst with the Independent Women's Forum; Tara McGuinness from the Center for American Progress; and Judy Norsigian from the women's health advocacy group, Our Bodies Ourselves.
12 Comments so far
Show AllDUH.
It's so embarrassing to be an American sometimes. As we swagger around the planet claiming to champion the rights of women, we have presidential candidates wanting to outlaw contraception. I hope we emerge from the dark ages someday.
There is something very wrong with a society that thinks they can legislate any part of a woman's body or feel they have a right to decide basic human functions. Women in a healthy society make rational decisions and live with the consequences. Want to end abortion then look at the society that contributes to these decisions. You can't possibly know all the consequences and should stop trying to be god. It is not your decision.
I agree in part with rwaller. The absolute refusal on the part of the left to consider the growing body of empirical data garnered from psychotherapists and others about the utterly destructive character of abortion is mind-boggling. To pretend its a "harmless" procedure is the equivalent of those on the right who deny the possibility of human-induced climate change.
Furthermore when poll after poll favors reducing abortion PP, NARAL, NOW, Emily's List and their lackeys in the Democratic Party continue to control the debate.
What is needed is a substantive debate about abortion using empirical evidence without the screaming of religious fanatics. And while my opposition to most forms of abortion started with my Catholic upbringing the use of empirical evidence is far more persuasive to a larger body of people than the moral opposition alone.
And I'm not even in favor of ending all abortion. A legitimate case can be made for abortion in the case of rape, incest and when the mother's life is endangered. Beyond that the issues become far more loaded and in my view require far closer scrutiny than ideologues on either side are willing to allow.
The artificial contraception debate is also far more complicated than those on the left are willing to admit. If one actually reads the concerns outlined in Humane Vitae, the famous papal encyclical of 1968 many of there concerns around the widespread access of artificial contraception have in fact come to pass. And even its use by married couples is far more complicated than many people are willing to admit.
But opening so-called "open-minds" has proven far more difficult than one can imagine.
well i think women health care should be taken seriously.
No shit Sherlock
Whilst we dote on women's health, Let us not do at the expense of men, animals, and Mother Earth
Women ain't the be-all end-all of our worries.
I signed this petition "One Million Strong For Women" from Senator Melendez and found on the Huffington Post. I see that all y'all do not cotton to URLs. Back to copy and paste.
Git on it friends,
jorgelito7
Anonymous should take a healthy "donation" from the Komen Foundation and give it straight to planned parenthood.
I disagree with rwaller andSeeker7. The catholic church has been causing suffering and death to hundreds of thousands of innocent young girls, women and the men who love the women for centuries. A woman and man's private, consensual, control of their sexual life in terms of the health of their bodies and minds in their bedrooms, doctors offices and hospitals is protected by the constitution . It is outrageous that the sexless, religious, clueless leaders demand control over the bodies of men and women but it is going way too far to allow religious politicians in the government to demand control over the most intimate and private part of a citizens body and life. The catholic ban on contraception ( including men's vasectomies) and abortion, can often result in complications of pregnancy serious enough to cause death or leave women with physical and emotional pain for many years. This republican nanny state's proposed ban on vital health care for American citizens does not help citizens like the safety net does for the poor but on the contrary causes great hardship and even death for untold numbers of innocent women and men. Catholics should not be allowed to force other catholics and non catholic( who do not believe that a zygote is a human being) girls and women to sacrifice their lives for a zygote that may not survive, under penalty of criminal prosecution .
Planned Parenthood clinics have been found to cover up sexual abuse perpretated on its clients. It opposes any legal protections of preborn infants, including those who are viable. They have even lobbied against laws that would outlaw aborting female infants for sex selection purposes. Far from providing women with a range of options, 90% of pregnant women who enter a PP clinic end up aborting their baby, to the tune of 300,000 abortions per year. PP is neither "pro-woman" nor "pro-humane." I have been active in the anti-war movement, the Occupy movement AND the pro-life movement. It makes much more sense for progressives who stand up for the vulnerable to protect the unborn that to militate for them to be denied their humanity and to be legally killed with impunity. Instead of providing decent health care, nutritional services, housing and jobs to women facing difficult pregnancies, we tell them they have the right to kill their child and congratulate ourselves on being so progressive.
Planned Parenthood uses 3% of its budget for abortion. Now if you are are pregnant and have cancer or other health related issues and you are at planned parenthood it is because outside of this service there is little or no support for you in the larger community. You don't live in a wellness based community, you live in a greedy market based healthcare system and a puritanical patriarchy.
There is a war on women, period! Do these men hate their mothers so much for having brought them onto this world? Perhaps the world would have been better off if they had NOT been born. Many years ago, Swiss women were battling to get the right to vote federally. Their one last tactic that worked: no bedroom privileges. Men's rationale always seems to be penis related.