Archives: Morning Breakouts

The Mississippi bill, which would require doctors working at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges to a local hospital, passed the House last month and is expected to be signed by the governor. Meanwhile, 32 Republican lawmakers in Arizona received knitted uteruses as part of a national protest against government regulation of women's health.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/04/05/20120405GOP-lawmakers-given-knitted-uteruses.html#ixzz1rGbgr8AG

"Nearly a third of pre-school children in Vietnam suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth, while in urban areas rates of childhood obesity are rising," according to a report released Thursday by the country's National Institute of Nutrition, Agence France-Presse reports. The study, based on a survey of more than 37,000 people conducted in 2009 and 2010, showed that more than three million children under the age of five, mainly in poor, rural areas of the country, "were malnourished, underweight or suffered from growth deficiencies," according to the news agency. Conversely, "[c]hildhood obesity rates have seen a six-fold rise since 2006 and now run at up to 15 percent in wealthier urban areas including the capital Hanoi and southern Ho Chi Minh City, according to the survey," AFP writes (4/6).

"Within five years, for the first time in history, the number of adults 65 and older will exceed the number of children younger than five, the World Health Organization reports," "which is why the aging global population's impact on social stability, economic growth and fiscal sustainability should be part of the agenda at next month's Group of Eight summit," Michael Hodin, an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and executive director of the Global Coalition on Aging, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. "And yet, the agenda for the G8 summit appears deficient on the topic of how countries can work together to develop policy reforms that would create pathways for healthy, active and productive aging," he writes, adding, "What's needed are profound policy changes in health, education and urban living that facilitate an active aging."

A new analysis from amfAR (.doc), The Foundation for AIDS Research, "estimates potential human impacts of funding changes [in global health programs] proposed in the President's fiscal year 2013 budget request when compared to current operating budget levels (fiscal year 2012)." President Obama's FY 2013 budget request includes a decrease in funding for PEPFAR and an increase in funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to the analysis, which concludes, "Taken together, proposed changes in funding for the Global Fund and PEPFAR could lead to significant reductions in lifesaving AIDS treatment delivery, services to orphans and other vulnerable children, prevention of vertical HIV transmission (from mother-to-child) services, and HIV testing services that could otherwise have been delivered with flat funding for PEPFAR" (April 2012).

In response to a demand from a federal appeals court judge, Attorney General Eric Holder says the Supreme Court has the power to review whether the health law is constitutional, but he also urged the court to show "deference."

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama made comments that "implicitly" warned the court against overturning the health law. Since then, defenders and critics have weighed in on his words and strategy.

In what has become a charged exchange, a federal judge in Texas demanded the Obama administration explain its views on the court's authority to overturn acts of Congress. Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday the Justice Department would respond "appropriately."

"The United States is suspending at least $13 million of its roughly $140 million in annual aid to Mali following last month's coup in the West African nation, the State Department said on Wednesday," Reuters reports, noting the "suspension affects U.S. assistance for Mali's ministry of health, public school construction and the government's efforts to boost agricultural production." According to the news agency, "U.S. law bars aid 'to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.'" State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said, "These are worthwhile programs that are now suspended because that aid goes directly to the government of Mali," Reuters notes (4/5). France and the European Union also immediately suspended all but essential humanitarian aid to the country, according to the Associated Press/USA Today.

Some commentators find fault with the president as well as with a federal judge who took the administration to task.