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Blogs Comment On Planned Parenthood Ad Campaign, Sex-Selective Abortion, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "A Radical Notion: Women"s Health Care as Mainstream," Cecile Richards, Huffington Post blogs: "To hammer ... home" the message that "Planned Parenthood and other essential community providers are the affordable, local access to basic preventive care that saves lives," the Planned Parenthood Action Center has introduced advertisements "educating the policy folks involved in fixing our health care system" about "why women"s health care needs to be taken care of in this mega-reform effort," Richards writes. She writes, "From cancer screenings to contraception to immunizations, the majority of women who go to women"s health care centers consider them their primary health care provider," adding, "In fact, more than 90% of what Planned Parenthood health centers do is preventive and primary care." According to Richards, "Essential community providers, including those who provide women"s health care, need to be part of any newly established health care system." She adds that "the three million patients who came to Planned Parenthood health centers last year can testify to it." Richards writes that "[f]amily planning and reproductive health care are unfortunately still not fully part of mainstream health care, even though 98% of women use contraception at some point in their lives -- there"s nothing more universal!" The "fact that women reproduce and, therefore, have different types of health care needs makes some folks on Capitol Hill go pale and start to sweat," Richards writes. She concludes, "Maybe one day we won"t need a special campaign to support women"s health," but "until then, Planned Parenthood is here to make sure women aren"t worse off after health care reform than before" (Richards, Huffington Post blogs, 6/18).~ "The Role of Medical Education in Preserving Abortion Access," Our Bodies, Our Blog: In response to a recent Salon opinion piece that examined whether there will be a next generation of abortion providers, the blog post discusses a few organizations that are "working to increase access to (accurate) abortion-related training." The blog includes links to Medical Students for Choice -- a group that "does student organizing and advocacy to influence medical school curricula, workshops ... and lectures on abortion techniques" -- and The Ryan Program -- which offers "funding, technical expertise, curriculum, workshops and other res to support training opportunities in abortion and contraception for ob-gyn residents." The blog entry also highlights the work of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, which partners with members of the American Medical Student Association "to provide "project in a box" materials for medical students wanting to access and influence their schools" curricula on sexual and reproductive health" (Our Bodies, Our Blog, 6/18). ~ "Regulating Abortion May Be OK But Not To Avoid Sex-Selection," Marianne Mollmann, Huffington Post blogs: "Sex-selective abortion raises a multitude of overlapping ethical concerns regarding eugenics, population control and provider privilege or knowledge," according to Mollmann, advocacy director for the Human Rights Watch"s Women"s Rights Division. Mollmann writes that recent media reports indicating that sex-selective abortion occurs among some ethnic communities in the U.S. "has generated new discussion about what to do -- indeed what to think -- about the practice here." She continues that the "effect of abortion regulations depends on the context and motivation," adding that "[f]rom a human rights perspective, the regulation of medical procedures and interventions is legitimate and indeed often necessary so long as they are based on full respect for the full range of human rights." It is "perhaps tempting to hope that banning sex-selective abortions would safeguard the gender balance of future generations," but the "criminalization of abortion for whatever reason has in the past led only to underground and unsafe prac
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House Rejects Amendment To HHS Bill To Limit Funding To Planned Parenthood Clinics
The House on Friday voted 264-153 to approve its fiscal year 2010 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (HB 3293) after voting on five amendments addressing price and policy issues, CQ Today reports. The bill would appropriate $730.5 billion. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to begin markup of its version of the bill on July 28.The House voted 183-247 to reject an amendment offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) that would have prohibited family planning funding through the Title X program to Planned Parenthood clinics. The House also voted 211-218 to reject an amendment by Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) that would have stripped language to lift the ban on federal funding for needle-exchange programs. Lawmakers did approve an amendment offered by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to strip $5 million in funding for three NIH grants to study the HIV/AIDS risks associated with alcohol and substance use among sex workers in Asia and alcoholics in Russia (Wolfe, CQ Today, 7/24).
News of the day
Unexpected Bacterial Diversity Found On Human Skin
The health of our skin - one of the body"s first lines of defense against illness and injury - depends upon the delicate balance between our own cells and the millions of bacteria and other one-celled microbes that live on its surface. To better understand this balance, National Institutes of Health researchers have set out to explore the skin"s microbiome, which is all of the DNA, or genomes, of all of the microbes that inhabit human skin. Their initial analysis, published in the journal Science, reveals that our skin is home to a much wider array of bacteria than previously thought.
Nutrition

World Health Organization Raises Pandemic Alert Level To Phase 6

Following today"s decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise its H1N1 influenza pandemic alert to Phase 6, its highest level, Marsh, the world"s leading insurance broker and risk advisor, is recommending that all organizations continue to focus on potential economic and jurisdictional issues in shaping their response to the current pandemic. As part of their response, Marsh advises organizations to continue to address potential health and social consequences of the pandemic, as well as to step up surveillance of pandemic clusters that might affect their operations, markets, or suppliers, and to monitor the performance of their current mitigation efforts. Gary S. Lynch of the Marsh Pandemic Response Center and global leader of the Supply Chain Risk Management Practice said: "With the declaration of the pandemic, public and private organizations should seek to finalize, validate, and test their business continuity, supply chain resiliency, and crisis communications plans, so they will be able to cope more effectively with any potential jurisdictional and economic consequences. "Industry"s ability to respond to the challenges posed by a pandemic may be complicated by the global economic recession, which has led to significant reductions in workforce, streamlining of supply chains, and cutbacks in operations," he added. According to Marsh, businesses should continue to monitor the possibility of government intervention, ranging from mandated shutdowns of factories and offices to increased scrutiny of goods and people at border crossings, random quarantines, and social isolation. The reality of global interdependent economies is that a pandemic can have ramifications for a company"s ability to goods and maintain its operations and service levels around the world. However, it is important to keep this in perspective as actions and impacts will vary depending on the severity of outbreaks in a particular geography or geographies. With the alert level now at Phase 6, Mr. Lynch notes that businesses should update their continuity plans in light of the pandemic, ensuring that their trading partners do the same. Planning should include: - An understanding of how and where an organization might be impacted, especially global supply chains that are supported by trading partners and public infrastructure providers. - Pre-defined business priorities and decision modeling that accounts for interdependencies. - A process for orderly shut-down or reduction in service based on a decline in demand, unavailability of labor force, absence of raw materials, or failure of critical infrastructure services, such as public health and safety, energy, sanitation, communications, and transportation. - Recovery, restoration, and resumption plans that address all key processes and res and define desired recovery times. At a minimum, these plans should include alternative methods for sourcing materials and products, alternative workforce, and work-at-home policy. He also points out that organizations should use the current pandemic as a basis for reviewing and updating the following: - A crisis and continuity management pandemic plan, including policies for business travel, locating staff, social-distancing, isolation procedures, and an alternative workforce. - A pandemic communication plan that ensures that all appropriate stakeholders are kept informed and know what is expected of them. - A physical and behavioral health policy for managing infected personnel and premises as well as hygiene and medical screening policies, anti-viral medications, health care support (e.g. anti-bacterial sanitizer, masks), and procedures for dealing with emotional impacts. In addition, organizations need to review their insurance coverage and understand how it relates to a Phase 6 pandemic event. It is critical to have available the specific policies (e.g. supply chain pandemic coverage, general liability, U.S. workers" compensation and benefits, U.K. and European employers" liability, and property) under which a claim might be made as many variables might affect potential recovery. This includes period of restoration, waiting periods, distance limitations, sub-limits, modification of language from the basic form, definitions, deductibles, and other policy conditions, including contamination and other exclusions. During the past several weeks, many organizations updated their pandemic plans with regard to social, health, economic, and security impacts as evidenced by such measures as: - Requesting that employees returning from infected countries remain at home for three to seven days. - Restricting employee business travel. - Activating accountability systems for employees and members of household. - Initiating three orders of succession and delegation. - Reviewing work-at-home procedures. - Monitoring and surveillance of events, and regular communication of all relevant information. - Validating trading partners" degree of preparedness. John Merkovsky, global leader of Marsh Risk Consulting, added: "Much will be learned from the initial response to this pandemic, in terms of coordinated international activity, communications, and the need to prioritize the key things we need to do to keep going. There is an urgency in finding and applying these lessons. Based on the world"s past experience with pandemics, businesses need to prepare for the possibility of a recurrence of H1N1 later in the year and for future pandemic outbreaks." Marsh offers a number of res for businesses related to the pandemic, including: - Rapid Pandemic Preparedness Assessment to help businesses evaluate their capabilities to respond to and recover from a pandemic, identify gaps in their continuity and crisis plans, and develop a roadmap for process improvement. For more information, visit here. - Pandemic Risk Transfer as part of Marsh"s Global Supply SecureSM, which can provide valuable protection for organizations that need pandemic coverage as part of their global supply chain coverage. For information, visit here. - One-hour Webcast, "H1N1 Flu and Pandemic Preparedness." A replay may be accessed free of charge by registering at http://global.marsh.com/news/articles/mediafiles/register.php. - Marsh Pandemic Preparedness Center at http://global.marsh.com/risk/pandemic/index.php. - Marsh 34-page report, H1N1 Influenza: Preparing for and Responding to a Pandemic, available free of charge by registering at http://global.marsh.com/risk/pandemic/index.php. - Marsh H1N1 influenza and pandemic e-mail alerts, available free to those registering at http://global.marsh.com/risk/pandemic/alerts/registration.php. Marsh


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