Blogs Comment On Birth Control Affordability, Abortion Waiting Periods, Patient Rights, Other Topics

The following summarizes women"s health-related blog entries.~ "One in Ten Women Worries About Her Ability To Keep Paying for Contraception," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: A Gallup poll released at a conference of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists showed the "alarming news" that women "say that using birth control is extremely important to them but, increasingly, they can"t afford it." The poll reveals that 6% of women using hormonal birth control said they stopped using it because they could not afford it, and 10% said they are worried that they might become unable to afford contraception. On average, women reported that reliable contraception is a "9" on a scale of importance, with the maximum being 10. In addition, those who said they have been greatly affected by the recession were more than twice as likely as others to report deciding to limit the size of their families -- 29% compared with 13%. Page writes, "While family planning in tough economic times is no doubt a reasonable path," the survey shows another "alarming finding: women are sacrificing their health when their pocketbooks are pinched." She writes that the "Obama administration could not have had better timing" in releasing its report on women and health care, which details, among other things, how women in their reproductive years pay higher insurance premiums than men. Page says the White House report and the Gallup poll show that the "cost disparity has a cascading effect" on women and that the "necessities they are forced to give up include contraception." According to Page, "Lucky for us, the Obama administration is approaching the health care crisis with the understanding that women and men might not have equal access to the care they need" and seeks to "view women"s health and rights as critical pieces of our nation"s recovery plan." She concludes, "Beginning to feel better already" (Page, Birth Control Watch, 5/14).~ ""Timeouts" For Grown Women," Lynn Harris, Salon"s Broadsheet: Currently, 24 states have laws requiring women to receive counseling and wait -- usually for 24 hours -- before undergoing an abortion, which basically "amounts to giving grown women a timeout," Harris writes. She cites a recent Guttmacher Institute analysis, which finds that abortion counseling and waiting periods have "next to no effect at all," except to "likely increase both the personal and the financial costs of obtaining an abortion, thereby preventing some women from accessing abortion services," according to the Guttmacher report. Harris continues that earlier research "unsurprisingly" confirms that women "have usually decided to go through with the procedure before they call to make their appointment." Therefore, "mandated, scripted in-person "counseling" is, at best, an exercise mainly in shame and burdensome logistics," Harris writes. She notes that these "restrictions are sold to lawmakers and voters wrapped in the sheep"s clothing of "informed consent."" However, such laws "are intended primarily to block abortion access," according to Lawrence Finer, co-author of the Guttmacher report. Harris concludes that "the most epic fail[ure] here of all" is "the amount of time and res and energy spent to establish, administer -- and circumvent -- these spurious, fatuous laws," which could "otherwise be spent, call me crazy, taking care of living, breathing women and children" (Harris, Salon"s Broadsheet, 5/13).~ "Patients" Rights Suddenly "Sacred" to Scared GOP," Lois Uttley, RH Reality Check: GOP strategist Frank Luntz has become the "newest defender of reproductive rights" by advising congressional Republicans "on how to defeat health reform this year by scaring voters about a "Washington takeover of health care,"" Uttley writes. Luntz, in a leaked GOP strategy memo on challenging the Democrats public health insurance plan option, is trying to "reinvent a group of politicians who have spent the last eight years standing for maximum government interference in Ameri