Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show with guest host Alison Stewart to comment on the lies and contradictory statements being made by opponents of Health Care Reform in Congress. Tackling a video from a Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) Town Hall, she points out that by Senator Coburn offering to assist a constituent who is requesting help, the senator's office is providing a tax-payer funded solution at the same time as he says that government is not the solution to our problems. Senator Coburn is the government!

Ms. Schultz also dissects a concept that has been pushed by churches and small-government advocates for some time. Senator Coburn suggests that what this constituent needs is assistance from her neighbors. The woman has asked him to help her husband who has a brain injury, has been dropped by his insurance, and has been kicked out of a nursing home. She is asking him for help because her husband cannot eat or drink on his own. She is asking him for help because her cannot speak and has a feeding tube. They need professional medical assistance.

Says Schultz, "What is this neighbors helping neighbors? What are they supposed to do, throw bake sales to help raise this money for health care?"

The following was published on Thursday, Aug 13, 2009 in the Akron Beacon Journal.

By Tara Broderick

Town-hall meetings across our country are being disrupted by rowdy protesters who are hijacking health-care reform. The stakes are too high to allow opposition tactics to scare us into losing the opportunity for real change in our country's health-care system.

Reproductive health care is often treated like the ''third rail'' of women's health. For many politicians and citizens, ''reproductive health care'' is synonymous with ''abortion.'' The reality is that reproductive health care is much broader and includes preventive services such as contraception, cancer screening, breast exams, immunizations and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

Abortion is being used as a wedge to deflect attention from the unique opportunity we have to achieve access to quality, affordable health care. If these divisive tactics succeed, women could end up worse off after health-care reform by losing benefits or providers of their choice.

First, let's set the record straight about abortion and health-care reform. There is no mandate to cover abortion care in any health-care reform legislation, and there is no plan to use taxpayer money to pay for abortions.

The public option that has been proposed is not a government-funded health plan. And in fact, 86 percent of employer-based insurance plans currently cover abortion care. Stripping that coverage from insured women is the real agenda.

Second, let's talk about prevention. On average, American women wish to become pregnant during a five-year period of their reproductive years. For the other 35-plus years, they are trying to prevent pregnancy. Virtually all sexually active women (98 percent, according to the Guttmacher Institute) use at least one contraceptive method at some point in their lives. Although contraception is a routine part of life for women, right-wing politicians and their town-hall protesters, continue to marginalize women's need for reproductive health care.

Unfortunately, our current health system is not oriented toward prevention. As President Obama has pointed out, it can be easier to get health-care coverage to have a foot amputated than to prevent the underlying diabetes. In the reproductive health realm, there are still insurance providers that will pay for an abortion but won't cover all the FDA-approved contraceptives that could prevent the need for an abortion in the first place.

Of course, what a health plan does or doesn't cover is moot to someone who doesn't even have insurance. An estimated 30 percent of U.S. women age 20 to 24 have no health insurance. For many of these young women, seeking contraception is the first point of entry into the health-care delivery system. In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 60 percent of family planning clients consider their family planning provider their only primary care provider.

As an essential community provider, Planned Parenthood knows first-hand that any health-care reform plan must give women the ability to access reproductive health care. Because of the recession, women are deferring childbearing; yet sadly, many are also deferring preventive care that could save their lives and protect their health.

Now is the time for women to stand up to these protesters to ensure that women's health is not put on the chopping block. Members of Congress need to hear that women support health-care reform and that we deserve to be better off after health-care reform — not worse.

Broderick is the president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio.

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

Studies show that teens in abstinence-only programs are no more likely to refrain from sex than are other teens. And some studies suggest abstinence-only curricula can be harmful because teens don't learn alternatives that can help protect them from pregnancy and diseases if they don't abstain from sex.

The U.S. Senate voted 68-31 to approve the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court today. Both Ohio senators voted Yes.

"I believe the factors to be examined in determining whether a Supreme Court nominee is qualified include her education, prior legal and judicial experience, judicial temperament, and commitment to the rule of law. Based on my review of her record, and using these factors, I have determined that Judge Sotomayor meets the criteria to become a Justice on the Supreme Court. I did not come to this determination lightly, and Judge Sotomayor has made statements that give me pause. However, after reviewing her judicial record and the comments made during the Judiciary Committee hearings, on balance, I believe she is fit to serve on our Nation’s highest court."
--Prepared remarks of Sen. Voinovich

"I applaud President Obama’s decision to nominate Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. The daughter of hard-working parents, Judge Sotomayor rose from New York public housing to become one of the most well-respected judges in the nation. Judge Sotomayor will be a tough, fair, and thoughtful addition to our nation’s highest court."
--Sen. Sherrod Brown in May, '09.




-Gabriel