Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Fiscal Bill Without Abstinence-Only Funding
The fiscal year 2010 Senate Appropriations Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee spending bill approved on Tuesday by voice vote does not include funding for abstinence-only programs, CQ Today reports.Subcommittee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said that when the full committee marks up the bill on Thursday, it will not include funding for abstinence-only sex education. The bill will provide money for comprehensive sex education programs, which can include teaching abstinence. The recently approved House version (HR 3293) takes a similar approach. CQ Today calls Harkin"s support for defunding abstinence-only "another nail in the coffin" for the programs, which had grown during President George W. Bush"s administration. According to CQ Today, since taking control of Congress in 2007, Democrats have been "slowly bleeding the program," saying most research has shown that abstinence-only programs are "ineffective at ensuring teen chastity."The subcommittee approved the bill"s funding table, which would provide $163.1 billion in discretionary funding. The amount of discretionary funding is $1.6 billion more than President Obama requested, $2.1 billion more than the House bill and $3.2 billion more than the fiscal year 2009 spending bill (Wolfe, CQ Today, 7/28).
generic viagra online
Society Launches Updated CPD Recording System
An improved Continuing Professional Development (CPD) recording system is being launched
News of the day
Opinion Piece Examines Abortion-Rights Opponents' Response To Connection Between Recession, Abortion
In response to recent news reports from Reuters, the Associated Press and other media outlets tying the recession to an increase in demand for abortion, the antiabortion-rights community is arguing that women are "choosing their own material comfort over the life of their unborn children" -- an interpretation that is "wrong on several accounts" -- Double X contributor Anna Murphy Paul writes in an opinion piece."No one wants her most intimate decisions to be driven by money," but, at the same time, "opting not to have a child you can"t afford to raise can be a realistic and responsible -- if painful -- choice, one often based on taking good care of the kids you already have" Murphy Paul says. She continues, "Nor is the intrusion of economic concerns on childbearing a phenomenon of this recession, or even the loosening of sexual mores over the past half-century; historically, financial hardship has been an ever-present motivation for ending a pregnancy."Murphy Paul cites the results of a 2005 Guttmacher Institute survey that found that nearly three-fourths of respondents said that the reason they decided to have an abortion was that they "could not afford a baby right now," which was the second-most common reason. The report found that the top reason for having an abortion was that children would interfere with women"s education, work or ability to care for dependents, all "concerns that are also largely economic in nature," Murphy Paul writes. She notes that at the time the study was published, "the Dow was still riding high, and the housing bubble seemed it would never pop." Murphy Paul adds that a 1987 Guttmacher survey on the same subject produced results "almost identical" to the 2005 survey.However, "to hear the pro-life activists tell it, women aren"t really struggling with difficult choices -- they just don"t want to give up the luxuries to which they"ve become accustomed," Murphy Paul writes. Abortion-rights opponents promote offers of counseling and no-cost infant supplies provided through "pregnancy re centers" to support women who choose not to have an abortion, but such centers often provide misleading information or offer little assistance beyond the first few months after birth, she says."Pro-life activists are surely right about one thing: It"s tremendously sad when a woman decides that she can"t bring into the world a child whom under better circumstances she would have welcomed," Murphy Paul continues. However, the "harsh rhetoric about selfishness and irresponsibility help far less than an acknowledgement of -- and lasting aid with -- the true costs of raising a child," she writes. According to Murphy Paul, in "the absence of such help, the most responsible act is to face economic reality head-on. For some women, that may mean abortion" (Murphy Paul, Double X, 5/15).
Health Insurance

Climate Change, Hunger, Economy G8 Summit Top Priorities; France's First Lady Calls On G8 To Expand On Global Health 'Achievements'

President Barack Obama joined world leaders in Italy on Wednesday for "three days of intense talks on threats to global security and stability" at a G8 summit "where climate change, the continuing global economy crisis and world hunger got top billing," AP/Google.com reports (Babington, 7/8). Ahead of the G8 meeting, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, published an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper, which describes "the progress that has been made by the G8 leaders in tackling HIV and AIDS in Africa" and calls on them "to build on their achievements," the Telegraph reports (7/8). AFP/Yahoo! News also reported on Bruni-Sarkozy"s message. The French first lady is a global ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (7/7). In the Guardian, Bruni-Sarkozy, applauds the G8"s 2001 establishment of the Global Fund, which has "enabled over half a million mothers to avoid transmitting HIV to their children" and provided "[m]illions" of AIDS orphans with "food, education and social support through programmes backed by the Global Fund," she writes, adding that this "revolution is beginning to transform Africa." However, "much of the progress made in reducing poverty over the past decades is under threat from the effects of the global economic crisis," according to Bruni-Sarkozy. "We have made inspiring and dramatic progress, but this journey has just begun," she writes, suggesting that G8 leaders "celebrate their achievements by expanding their investment in saving lives and reducing inequities. It is not only possible - it is happening, it works, and there is much more still to do," she concludes (Bruni-Sarkozy, 7/7). Prior to the start of the summit, a coalition of groups, including Greenpeace, Water Aid and End Water Poverty, issued a call to G8 leaders to "tackle global water and sanitation issues, especially those in developing countries," Water Tech Online reports. Oliver Cumming of Water Aid said, "Water and sanitation underpin all development efforts. Without access to safe water and sanitation, other decisions that the G8 make will be severely threatened" (7/7). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009