Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Simply Opposing Abortion Does Not Make You 'Pro-Life'; Trump Needs A Female Czar On Women's Health Issues
Boston Globe: If This Is The New ‘Pro-Life’ Movement, Count Me Out
Women are in charge of their reproductive health, and their efforts to reduce unwanted pregnancies are working. All of which leads many to believe that the timing and the similarities of this multi-state campaign reveal a purely political strategy to energize and motivate the religious right. That too is shameful. (Stephen F. Lynch 5/31)
USA Today: Trump Administration Neglect Shows Need For Permanent Top Women's Post
When I served as the U.S. ambassador for Global Women’s Issues during the Obama administration, foreigners often asked me why the United States does not have a Cabinet agency or ministry for women. It struck many of the diplomats I met as odd, because dozens of other countries — including leading democracies like Canada, France and the United Kingdom — have a Cabinet-level government official responsible for directing policies for women and girls. (Cathy Russell, 5/28)
The Birmingham News: I See You, I Am With You, I Am Sorry
The fact is if you are pro-life that is great, for you, but for you to place your personal values/beliefs on someone else (especially if you are a man who will never understand what it is like to be a woman and frankly do not deserve to have an opinion on the subject) is wrong. I said it. In personal experience I have found that the people who claim to be “pro-life” are also pro death penalty, pro-gun, and advocate for abstinence over thorough sex education in schools. And if we are being really honest, you aren’t so “pro-life” when that fetus is born into a family of generational poverty and crime and grows up on the “wrong side of town”. (Savannah Short, 5/29)
Bloomberg: Abortion And Trump: Hypocrisy In EPA Cut To Fetal Health Research
President Donald Trump and his administration have undermined their very vocal support of the “unborn” by canceling the primary source of funding for studies monitoring the prenatal and postnatal effects of pollution on children. From the start of his presidency, Trump has appealed to pro-life evangelicals with his tough-on-abortion Supreme Court appointments and anti-abortion rhetoric. His public stance has encouraged extreme state restrictions, such as those adopted in Alabama, which essentially outlaws abortion, and Missouri, where abortions may be unavailable as soon as this week. (Faye Flam, 5/30)
