Perspectives: Backing The Hyde Amendment Makes Biden An Unsuitable Candidate; Missouri’s Abortion Bill Gives Rapists More Power Over Women
Editorial pages focus on abortion issues and other women's health topics.
The Washington Post:
Joe Biden’s Support Of The Hyde Amendment Makes Him Unfit To Lead
During the first five months of 2019, lawmakers across the country passed a slew of antiabortion laws, including a near-total abortion ban in Alabama. And as each piece of deliberately unconstitutional legislation has been signed into law, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have forcefully opposed them. Many have also revealed plans to protect Roe v. Wade and to expand access to abortion care should they be elected the next president. It’s the right thing to do, but it’s also good politics: these laws have galvanized female voters , who were the key to the Democrats’ strong performance in November’s midterm elections. (Danielle Campoamor, 6/5)
The Washington Post:
Why The Hyde Amendment Is Suddenly A Democratic Primary Issue
Democrats — most of them, at least — are done apologizing for their support of abortion rights. The proximate cause is the unprecedented assault on Roe v. Wade now being waged in statehouses and the courts, with the serious likelihood that in the near future the Supreme Court could either overturn the decision entirely or gut it beyond recognition. The threat to the right to abortion has produced both fear and a new reexamination of how Democrats have talked and acted about this issue for years. Which is why the Hyde Amendment is suddenly an issue in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. (Paul Waldman, 6/5)
The Washington Post:
On Abortion, Biden Shows He Is Out Of Step With His Party
Though former vice president Joe Biden is ahead of the crowded 2020 presidential field in every poll, his greatest vulnerability presents itself again and again: He is a man out of step with his party. His record on crime has already put him at odds with the Democratic base, as has his praise of bipartisan compromise at a time when there is little appetite for appeasement. But Biden has proved surprisingly skillful at balancing the doubts that Democrats have about his record against a presumption that he might be their strongest bet to oust President Trump from the White House next year. (Karen Tumulty, 6/5)
St. Louis Post Dispatch:
Missouri's New Abortion Law Is A Travesty For Women
Missouri finds itself in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons again — this time, by giving new rights and opportunities to rapists. By signing House Bill 126, which bans abortions even in the case of rape, incest or human trafficking, Gov. Mike Parson has spoken loud and clear. He wants rapists in Missouri to have more power over their victims. He wants a woman’s decisions over her health care to be criminalized. These positions are extreme and cruel. (Nicole Galloway, 6/3)
The Hill:
The Anti-Birth-Control Minority Controlling Our Health Care
The public widely supports access to contraception. Nearly eight in 10 adults, and the majority of voters in both main political parties, consider birth control a fundamental part of women’s health care.Unfortunately, a vocal minority that considers birth control immoral is now setting the nation’s health-care agenda at the Department of Health and Human Services, and we are seeing the impact. Most recently, HHS directed millions of dollars in federal funding for birth control to California-based Obria, a self-described “ministry” that opposes the use of contraception yet purports to be a women’s health-care provider. (Alice Huling, 6/5)
WBUR:
A Person's Right To Choose
I will continue to make sure that reproductive rights are discussed in LGBTQ+ spaces. But please, remember that we’re all fighting for a person’s right to choose. Not all women have a uterus, and not all people with a uterus are women. How we frame the conversation is important. (Mason Dunn, 6/6)
The Hill:
Candidates Should Follow Sen. Harris's Lead On Maternal Health
Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) reintroduced her 2018 bill that seeks to address rising maternal mortality rates, particularly among black women. Harris’s Maternal CARE Act, and the accompanying House version, would authorize $150 million toward programs that seek to help medical professionals identify high-risk pregnancies and establish implicit-bias training curriculum for medical schools.Her bill seeks to address a deeply troubling development: Severe maternal complications have more than doubled in the past 20 years and the U.S. maternal mortality rate has become the highest among high-income countries. (Arielle Kane, 6/5)
The New York Times:
One Hospital’s Plan To Reduce C-Sections: Communicate
Erica Rice calls her 2017 V.B.A.C., or vaginal birth after cesarean, “a herculean team effort.” Not least of which because she delivered twins.The team on call at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston provided Ms. Rice with support and comfort measures, like turning her side to side, and gave her a well-placed mirror to encourage her. “They did whatever it took,” Ms. Rice, a 37-year-old lawyer in Jamaica Plain, Mass., told me. “I was blown away by the support.” (Allison Yarrow, 6/5)
The New York Times:
Where A Miracle Substance Called Breast Milk Saves Lives
Painted on the side of a health post in this rural town in Guatemala’s western highlands is a simple message: Breast-feeding is a lifelong gift. But around the world, breast milk is a gift that many children are given incorrectly or not given at all — and the results are devastating. Health scholars report that a child dies more than once a minute somewhere in the world for lack of proper breast-feeding. (Mia Armstrong, 6/5)
