Blogs Comment On Supreme Court Pregnancy Leave Ruling, Obama's Notre Dame Speech, Other Topics

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "Peaceful Revolution: Another Blow to Women," Debra Ness, Huffington Post blogs: The Supreme Court's ruling this week in AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen "dealt a serious and painful blow to working women and the families who rely on their retirement benefits," Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, writes. The ruling "affects a limited number of people," and it "would be easy to ignore them -- easy, but terribly wrong," Ness continues. "This ruling sends a terrible message about whether discrimination will bring penalties and costs, and whether the courts will address the ongoing effects of prior discrimination," she writes. Ness notes that the ruling "couldn't come at a worse time," adding, "In today's grim economic climate, women and their families cannot afford to see their retirement benefits kept lower by discriminatory workplace policies that should have been remedied decades ago." Ness writes that it is "sobering that, at a time when negative stereotypes about pregnant women clearly persist, we have a Supreme Court that doesn't stand firm for equal rights and equal opportunity." She concludes, "It's a good reminder of what's at stake with the Supreme Court nomination President Obama is about to make" (Ness, Huffington Post blogs, 5/21).

~ "This Week in Religion and Politics," Sarah Posner, American Prospect's "The FundamentaList": When "viewed in the context of Obama's entire faith-based outreach project, the events" surrounding the University of Notre Dame's commencement ceremony "highlighted how he has embraced traditionalist, conservative religion -- to the detriment of sexual and reproductive justice," Posner writes. President Obama has "focused his outreach efforts" to reduce the need for abortion "on more conservative religious groups" and "claims to honor their position on moral issues," Posner writes. However, "when the dust settles on the Notre Dame controversy, he'll have to figure out what to do with the policy advice he has sought" from the White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, she continues. Posner adds, "How Obama reacts to that advice will demonstrate whether the council is mere window dressing to shore up support from swing constituencies or whether Obama will yield to conservative religious dogma on reproductive-health issues." Meanwhile, Christian conservatives have been "making hay of the findings" of recent Pew and Gallup polls that found more U.S. residents identifying with "pro-life" positions and using the data to argue "that Obama's position is out of touch with the majority of Americans," Posner writes. However, as bloggers at The Monkey Cage and FiveThirtyEight have pointed out, the polls are not representative of most U.S. residents' views on abortion rights, she writes. "Because of that deception on reproductive rights, it's more important than ever for the president to lay the moral groundwork for his own position -- not just to recognize the moral qualms of abortion opponents," Posner says (Posner, "The FundamentaList," American Prospect, 5/20).














~ "Meghan McCain Preaches What She Practices," Willa Paskin, Slate's "XX Factor": Meghan McCain -- Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) daughter -- "acquitted herself quite admirably" on Monday's episode of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" by "defending her core position" that the Republican Party "needs to appeal to younger voters, and it can only do so by getting liberal on social issues," Paskin writes. On the show, McCain said, "I think it's not realistic for this generation to be just plain abstinent, I think we need to have sex education with condoms and birth control. ... I would never practice anything I didn't preach." Paskin also includes a video clip of McCain's appearance (Paskin, "XX Factor," Slate, 5/19).

~ "Skill the Messenger," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) 18-year-old daughter Bristol -- who was recently named a teen ambassador for the Candie's Foundation's teen pregnancy prevention campaign -- "has, yet again, harnessed the immense media interest in her to draw attention to the problem," Page writes. However, her "style as a spokesperson seems decidedly uninformed," and "someone needs to arm her with the tools to convey her message most powerfully," Page continues. Bristol Palin has "so much opportunity to make an important impact" on issues surrounding teen pregnancy in the U.S., and "with just a little guidance from the experts, she can," Page writes. She adds, "Hopefully, she'll seek out that help. It'll make her a much more interesting figure who, while keeping the fickle media engaged, can educate those at greatest risk" (Page, Birth Control Watch, 5/21).



Antiabortion-Rights Blog

~ "Reps. Sensenbrenner and Smith Call on Obama To Live Up to Notre Dame Speech Statement on Conscience Protection," National Right to Life Committee blog: Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) in their Tuesday letter to President Obama asked that he "live up to what he said by publicly forgoing his administration's move to rescind the Bush administration's conscience protection," according to NRLC's blog. It continues that Obama's pledge during his Notre Dame commencement address to "'honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women,'" is "a far cry from what happened in late February" when the administration took the "first step toward rescinding" the Bush administration's provider "conscience" rule. The blog post adds that NRLC has sent a letter to HHS stating that the "federal government should not rescind this carefully crafted regulation designed to safeguard against forced violations of conscience in federally funded programs" (National Right to Life Committee blog, 5/20)


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