Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio released their monthly Thanks and Spanks today. The organization's cheers and jeers go to two groups or individuals who have made a difference in reproductive rights, either good or bad.

Ohio Attorney General Rich Cordray has asked President Obama to rescind an anti-choice Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation that was created by the Bush Administration in their final days in office. Commonly known as the "Provider Conscience" regulation, it does two harmful things.

First, it allows anti-choice protesters to apply for jobs at women's health clinics without facing questions regarding their willingness to prescribe or legally distribute birth control. Employers, including Planned Parenthood, would not be able to ask doctors or nurses if they would be willing to provide women with complete care, nor could they terminate them if they refused. Should a clinic refuse to comply, they would lose the funding that keeps health care services available to women in their community.

Second, it would open the door for the HHS Department to redefine all prescription birth control as a form of abortion. Any use of contraceptive medications would be subject to all laws governing abortion procedures.

Obviously, this Bush Administration regulation was created to interrupt women's access to birth control, health care, and abortion. President Obama has signaled his intention to rescind the regulation. By urging the president to do so, AG Cordray is working to ensure Ohio's health care providers maintain their funding and their services. Bravo, Mr. Attorney General!



Emergency contraception is birth control. Period. Birth control pills are available to women and teens, and therefore, emergency contraception (known as EC or 'Plan B') should be available to women and teens to prevent pregnancies. Because of the emergency aspect of EC, it has been approved as an over-the-counter form of contraceptive by the Food and Drug Administration.


The Concerned Women for America do not want teen girls and adult women to have all the options available to prevent unintended pregnancies. They do not feel that a rape victim has the right to avoid becoming pregnant by her attacker. They do not feel that a girl who understands she's not prepared to become a mother should not have to be one.

When the FDA announced that Plan B may be sold to 17 year-old girls, the CWA president, Wendy Wright went on CNN to disseminate her anti-prevention lies. (video and transcript) She appeared opposite Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, and Wright continued to spread the lie that this contraception is an abortifacient. We reject Wright's false claims and her efforts to deny teens' access to contraceptives.

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The president held his third press conference on his 100th day in office. He addressed the issue of abortion, drawing attention to the need for pregnancy prevention methods to reduce the number women dealing with untended pregnancies.

Transcript of the question and answer after the jump.


OBAMA PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

OBAMA: Ed Henry?

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. In a couple of weeks, you're going to be giving the commencement at Notre Dame. And, as you know, this has caused a lot of controversy among Catholics who are opposed to your position on abortion.

As a candidate, you vowed that one of the very things you wanted to do was sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which, as you know, would eliminate federal, state and local restrictions on abortion. And at one point in the campaign when asked about abortion and life, you said that it was above -- quote, "above my pay grade."

Now that you've been president for 100 days, obviously, your pay grade is a little higher than when you were a senator.

(LAUGHTER)

Do you still hope that Congress quickly sends you the Freedom of Choice Act so you can sign it?

OBAMA: You know, the -- my view on -- on abortion, I think, has been very consistent. I think abortion is a moral issue and an ethical issue.

I think that those who are pro-choice make a mistake when they -- if they suggest -- and I don't want to create straw men here, but I think there are some who suggest that this is simply an issue about women's freedom and that there's no other considerations. I think, look, this is an issue that people have to wrestle with and families and individual women have to wrestle with.

OBAMA: The reason I'm pro-choice is because I don't think women take that -- that position casually. I think that they struggle with these decisions each and every day. And I think they are in a better position to make these decisions ultimately than members of Congress or a president of the United States, in consultation with their families, with their doctors, with their doctors, with their clergy.

So -- so that has been my consistent position. The other thing that I said consistently during the campaign is I would like to reduce the number of unwanted presidencies that result in women feeling compelled to get an abortion, or at least considering getting an abortion, particularly if we can reduce the number of teen pregnancies, which has started to spike up again.

And so I've got a task force within the Domestic Policy Council in the West Wing of the White House that is working with groups both in the pro-choice camp and in the pro-life camp, to see if we can arrive at some consensus on that.

Now, the Freedom of Choice Act is not highest legislative priority. I believe that women should have the right to choose. But I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on. And that's -- that's where I'm going to focus.



-Gabriel

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Corey Ryan, from the Athens News covered Prevention First Lobby Day 2009. His full article after the jump.

Written by Corey Ryan
Monday, 27 April 2009

Pro-choice activist Lois Whealey’s life hangs around her neck and decorates her bright red jacket.

The charms laced around her silver chain include emblems from her three alma maters – Stanford, University of Michigan and Ohio University – and for each of her three children and three grandchildren.

Below the crowded charm necklace are scattered Whealey’s buttons. One button reads “Pro Child, Pro Family, Pro Choice,” from her Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) group. Whealey is also active in the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters and the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio.

“It has always been important in my family to have strong women,” Whealey said. “That’s why I have always felt so strongly that a woman’s political, social and economic rights need protecting.”And here is the rest of it.

Voicing her opinion is why Whealey loves to wear her buttons and her t-shirts, she said. Although Whealey does not need fashion flair to talk about what she says is an essential right to women, the right to choice, an opportunity to gain a new shirt and button does leave a smile.

Whealey grabbed her newest button declaring her love for pro-choice boys at Wednesday’s fourth annual Prevention First Act Lobby Day in Columbus, an event where a collaboration of Ohio men and women met with their respective state legislatures to gather support for the proposed legislation.

The Prevention First Act breaks down into five sections – assistance for sexual-assault victims, increasing education about emergency contraception, guaranteeing access to over-the-counter contraception medication, honest and accurate sex education in high schools, and contraceptive equity.

Tara Harwood, Development Coordinator at Planned Parenthood of Southeast Ohio, and Whealey represented the Athens district by meeting with state Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens. The duo was scheduled to meet with Sen. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, but the meeting fell through because of scheduling confusion.

“(Phillips) was very receptive,” Harwood said. “We shared our stories, and (Phillips) told some of her own.”

Harwood and Whealey did not have the time to prepare like most of the lobbyers because their meeting was scheduled before lunch. But the setback did not derail Whealey from expressing her main concern.

“One of the things that I find very troubling is that men are permitted to have insurance coverage for erectile dysfunction,” Whealey said. “Women very often do not get coverage for contraception. There's a double standard when men get aids for conception, but women can't get aid for contraception.”

Health-insurance companies provided coverage for Viagra, a pill that treats impotence, within the first year it hit the market. But Ohio’s health insurers are not required to cover FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices.

“My patients range from 12 years old to 48,” said Dr. Rhonda Medina, an OBGYN in Lima, Ohio. “Yesterday I saw a 15-year-old on her second pregnancy. When she delivered last year, I wanted to put her on an oral contraceptive pill.

“It wasn’t my first choice because I don’t like to give teenagers something they have to think about every day,” she added. “But that’s the only thing her mother’s insurance plan would cover.”

Pro-choice lobbyists from the more conservative Delaware County decided to approach their legislator from a financial perspective. For every $1 spent on a family-planning program, $4.70 is saved in averted Medicaid birth costs according to a 2008 article in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Other lobbying groups took different approaches. The RCRC presented the lobbyists with tips for addressing religion and issues of faith.

“We will not change the ethical framework that these men and women operate in, nor should that be our purpose,” said the Rev. Richard Venus, a member of the Ohio RCRC board of directors. “We should be clear where our ethics come from…”

Several mainstream religions including Roman Catholicism have strongly advocated against teaching anything other than abstinence in sex-education classes. The Prevention First Act requires comprehensive sex education classes to provide age-appropriate and medically accurate information about both abstinence and contraception.

“I was given all the information to get a good score on the SAT,” said fourth-year Ohio State student and Olmstead Falls High School graduate John Petrus. “I was not given enough information on how to keep safe, and what the risks and dangers out there.”

Petrus said he contracted HIV during his freshman year at Ohio State because he was not properly educated on sexual safety as a gay student.

Another section of the Prevention First Act seeks to protect those seeking contraceptives.

“I have a cousin who is a pharmacist,” Dr. Medina said. “Two years ago I was sitting at a family gathering, and I hear my cousin saying ‘Why should I dispense emergency contraception; I don’t believe in contraception.’ I thought that when I write a prescription, it gets filled.”

Medina’s cousin is not the lone pharmacist to deny contraceptives, according to a 2005 article in Science magazine. The article “Pharmacists Refusals: A Threat to Women’s Health” cites some instances where pharmacists have lectured women on their decision to use birth-control or emergency contraceptive, also known as the morning after pill.

The FDA permits the sale of emergency contraceptive without a prescription to women 17 or older (the age limit was 18 prior to April 23, 2009).

For more information about the Prevention First Act or to sign the petition, visit the Ohio Planned Parenthood Web site at ppao.org.

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Ohio Prevention First Lobby Day attendees were thrilled to hear from Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Ms. Schultz, wife of Ohio's U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, spoke about encouraging women to be vocal with their elected officials. She also urged the attendees to consider running for office themselves. "You all know somebody who should be running for public office. And many of you should be considering it."


Connie Schultz Keynote Speech- Prevention First Lobby Day 2009 from Freedom of Choice Ohio on Vimeo.



-Gabriel

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