Further Reading on Politicization of Abortion
in America

An affront to women and families

A last-ditch effort to redefine birth control as abortion isn't a matter of conscience; it's just unconscionable

Michael Leavitt feels misunderstood, or so he hints on his blog. The Bush-appointed secretary of health and human services isn't sure how some people, somehow, got the crazy idea that the government intends to redefine birth control as a form of abortion. READ MORE in The Oregonian's editorial August 12, 2008

Redefining abortion:
Federal officials considering a rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide contraceptives

The Bush administration has consistently opposed providing funding for international birth control programs, but until now has not tried to limit the use of contraceptives inside the United States.

That could change in the president's final months in office. Read more: Houston Chronicle editorial 8/10/08

Birth Control: They're at it again

The Bush administration has heard the outrage over a proposed regulation that would dishonestly define birth control as abortion. Read MORE in SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL 8/10/08

Treating the Pill as Abortion,
Draft Regulation Stirs Debate

Set aside the fraught question of when human life begins. The new debate: When does pregnancy begin?

The Bush Administration has ignited a furor with a proposed definition of pregnancy that has the effect of classifying some of the most widely used methods of contraception as abortion. Read more: Wall Street Journal 7/31/08.

Republican and independent women who support abortion rights in 12 presidential election "battleground" states were more likely to favor Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) when told of Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) position on abortion rights, according to a poll released Monday by NARAL Pro-Choice America...|MORE

Repairing the Damage, Before Roe

Jun3 3, 2008
By WALDO L. FIELDING, M.D.

With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside.

When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can. |MORE

[April 9, 2008
Ipas press release]

A federally funded Johns Hopkins University project, Popline, made a recent decision to remove an Ipas publication on abortion and human rights from a vast database of publications maintained as an international web-based resource for health researchers and the general public. Administrators further decided to block searches on the term "abortion" for visitors to the website, a decision reversed on April 4th by the Dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health when the issue reached the media. [See earlier article below.] The Ipas publication, the Winter 2008 issue of A: The Abortion Magazine, was not re-instated.

Ipas regards the singling out of this publication for exclusion from more than 26,000 items on the Popline database that relate to abortion as another instance of excessive and politically-motivated government interference in free speech and academic freedom.

"As Americans, we count on decisionmakers at every level in our government to hold the line in protecting basic principles. Countless government-funded programs and publications have been subject to the same intimidation and censorship by this Administration, which has even extended to intrusion in science-based work of the World Health Organization. Such interference must end," says Ipas President Elizabeth Maguire." See further

ACOG may redo abortion conscience policy

Some anti-abortion doctors fear their board certification would be at risk if they refuse to refer patients to doctors willing to perform the procedure.

Under fire from anti-abortion physicians and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced in March that it will re-examine a controversial November 2007 opinion outlining the limits of conscientious refusal.
For months, anti-abortion doctors have complained that the opinion disrespects doctors' rights to practice medicine in accord with their beliefs. But the controversy reached a crescendo when Leavitt released a letter to leaders of ACOG...|MORE

Federally Funded Hopkins Database Restored To Accept Abortion-Related Searches After Being Restricted

[April 7, 2008]

Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health is once again allowing its federally funded reproductive health database Popline to accept searches containing the word "abortion" after such searches were restricted in February, the New York Times reports (Pear, New York Times, 4/5). Popline, which stands for population information online, is a free database funded by USAID. Popline provides more than 360,000 citations and abstracts of scientific articles, books, reports and unpublished reports on population, family planning and related issues, according to the Baltimore Sun. |MORE

Bloomberg Dean Klag's Statement Regarding POPLINE Database

[April 4, 2008]

"I was informed this morning that the word "abortion" was blocked as a search term in the POPLINE family planning database administered by the Bloomberg School’s Center for Communication Programs. POPLINE provides evidence-based information on reproductive health and family planning and is the world’s largest database on these issues... I could not disagree more strongly with this decision, and I have directed that the POPLINE administrators restore "abortion" as a search term immediately. |MORE

NARAL Pro-Choice New York has developed a comprehensive resource that provides New York women with information about all of their reproductive choices. The "Book of Choices" presents a woman facing unintended pregnancy with all of the information she needs to make the decision for herself and her family. See further

Buried among prairie dogs and amateur animation shorts on YouTube is a curious little mini-documentary shot in front of an abortion clinic in Libertyville, Ill. The man behind the camera is asking demonstrators who want abortion criminalized what the penalty should be for a woman who has one nonetheless. You have rarely seen people look more gobsmacked. It's as though the guy has asked them to solve quadratic equations. Here are a range of responses: "I've never really thought about it." "I don't have an answer for that." "I don't know." "Just pray for them." Read this compelling article by Anna Quindlen in the Aug. 6, 2007 issue of Newsweek.

Adolescents and poor women are more likely than other women to have trouble obtaining an abortion early in pregnancy, when the procedure is safest and least expensive according to a study by Lawrence Finer, Ph.D., of the Guttmacher Institute published in the October 2006 issue of Contraception. Once pregnancy is suspected, most women who want an abortion act fairly quickly and are able to obtain an abortion in the first trimester.
However, Dr. Finer and his colleagues report that two groups of women — adolescents and poor women — have greater difficulty obtaining an early abortion, but for very different reasons: Teens are hampered by a lack of knowledge about the symptoms of pregnancy, while poor women's financial constraints are often an obstacle to timely receipt of services.

 

Slides provided by Guttmacher graphically display the trend and meaning of abortion rates since Roe.

During the interview Dr. Finer frequently cites Guttmacher Institute's 2006 study of abortion trends, "Abortion in Women's Lives."
This report is among many which Dr. Finer has authored in his extensive work with Guttmacher.
It is important, Dr. Finer asserts, to understand that not only is U.S. abortion decline close to stalling but, worse, disparities in unintended pregnancy grow within individual states and within particular population subgroups. See further a new analysis by the Guttmacher Institute.

The wake-up call to strengthen evidence-based policies that have been proven to reduce unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion was very clearly articulated by Dr. Finer. Several items of legislation speaking to this end are pending in Albany, including

• the Healthy Teens Act
• funding for Reproductive Health Care
• Unintended Pregnancy Prevention Act
• facilitation of access to Emergency Contraception

Where do your state legislators stand on these issues? See hotlinks to the position of Westchester's delegation.

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Nicolas D. Kristof, has spoken out strongly on the failure of the Bush administration to promote policies which would reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and decrease the need for abortions.

New Study Notes Role that Government Has Played in Widespread Incidence of Repeat Abortions. Read abstract of Guttmacher published early November 2006.

In New York Times 8/4/06 Opinion piece, "Criminals, Like Me," it is asserted that bills that would criminalize assisting minors to circumvent state parental notification laws do not protect pregnant girls. Read Kaiser analysis of opinion piece here.

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses an abortion-related bill (S 403), passed last week by the Senate, that would allow federal charges to be filed against individuals who violate parental consent and notification laws. Go to full discussion and access to audio online.

The Washington Post reports 7/26/06 that "The Senate voted yesterday to make it a crime to take a pregnant minor to another state to obtain an abortion without her parents' knowledge, handing a long-sought victory to the Bush administration and abortion opponents." Read full article here.

In the July 26 Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report you will find complete coverage of the 7/26/06 Senate vote restricting rights of pregnant minors. The Report includes excerpts from a numbr of national news sources and links to RealPlayer renditions NPR's "Morning Edition" coverage of the legislation.

Senator Clinton spoke on the "Child Custody Protection Act" on the Senate floor yesterday [7/25/06] emphasizing the danger it poses to the lives and safety of girls. She talked about her experience as a lawyer in Arkansas, assigned the case of a man who had impregnated his young daughters, 14 and 12 years old. Read further here.

President Bush's budget proposal for the first time since he took office includes "sharp cuts" for funding of international family planning programs, which the Bush administration previously said were "one of the best ways to prevent abortion..."->> Read further

Alito During Hearings Says He Would Approach Abortion Rights Cases With An 'Open Mind' Despite Views Expressed in 1985->> Read further

A provocative OpEd opinion piece, "A Man's Right to Choose," published December 1, 2005 in New York Times.

"Understanding women's reasons for having abortions can inform public debate and policy regarding abortion and unwanted pregnancy..." ->>Read further in an Alan Guttmacher Institute report (pdf file) published in September 2005.

"With high-court debate brewing, new report shows [abortion] procedure's numbers [are] down..." ->>Read further in a July 2005 Washington Post article.

"This year's state legislative season draws to a close having produced a near-record number of laws imposing new restrictions on a woman's access to abortion or contraception..." ->>Read further in an August 2005 article in the Washington Post.

A New York Times article about Florida's dispute over abortion for girl in state shelter was discussed during the show. ->>Read further

"About half (49%) of the approximately 5.4 million pregnancies occurring in the United States each year are unintended," asserts a factsheet, Abortion in the U.S., published by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. ->>Read further. (pdf file)

"With an administration deeply opposed to abortion, a Congress poised to pass legislation aimed at weakening the principles underlying Roe v. Wade and a Supreme Court whose composition is considered likely to change in the near future, it is instructive to look back at the choices available—and not available—to women before abortion was made legal nationwide," states the Guttmacher Public Policy report entitled Lessons from Before Roe: Will Past be Prologue? ->>Read further (pdf file) published March 2003.