July 27, 2012

FEATURED BLOG

"Planned Parenthoods Rescued by Obama Administration With Large Title X Grants," Laura Bassett, Huffington Post blogs: President Obama's administration has awarded large Title X family planning grants to Planned Parenthood clinics in New Jersey, Tennessee and North Carolina after those states' legislatures defunded the clinics. A clinic in Durham, N.C., on Wednesday was awarded $426,000, Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis was awarded $395,000 annually for the next three years and the New Jersey Family Planning League received $3.1 million for providers in its network, including Planned Parenthood. Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of policy, advocacy and communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, "This is really about the women and men in this country who need high quality, affordable health care." Bassett points out that the grants are not unusual -- they were awarded to Planned Parenthood clinics under Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton -- but the clinics recently requested the funding because of the loss of state money (Bassett, Huffington Post blogs, 7/26).

FEATURED BLOG

"When Lying to Women Is Mandated Care: Informed Consent, Abortion, and the Role Played by Justice Kennedy," Jessica Pieklo, RH Reality Check: "Thank Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy" for his role in the decision to uphold a South Dakota law that requires physicians to tell women that abortion increases the risk of suicide, Pieklo writes, noting that it was Kennedy who first articulated that "states are free to pass informed consent laws that favor childbirth over abortion" as long as the "information isn't based on a lie," even "when there's a lack of medical consensus on an issue." Pieklo writes that if there was "truth" of a suicide-abortion link, "then doctors would already have an obligation to disclose it." She adds, "That this is not standard medical practice but one invented by anti-choice legislators [that] says all that needs to be said about the truthfulness of these disclosures or the necessity of these practices" (Pieklo, RH Reality Check, 7/25).

What others are saying about the court decision on the South Dakota abortion law:

~ "Journal Considering Retraction of Article Used To Support Federal Court Ruling on South Dakota Law," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check.

~ "Court OK's Mandated Disclosure of Abortion-Suicide Link," Jessica Pieklo, Care2.

~ "South Dakota Doctors Still Required To Tell Patients That Abortion Causes Suicide," Alex Brown, ThinkProgress.

~ "South Dakota Upholds Suicide Advisory for Abortions," Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Feministing.