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'New And Improved Antiabortion Movement' Still Ignores Needs Of Women, Salon Opinion Piece States
A "new set of antiabortion actors" who are "anti-war, anti-capital punishment, pro-environment "pro-lifers"" have "emerged as the face of a new and improved antiabortion movement," Salon columnist Frances Kissling writes. Although these advocates supported President Obama in the 2008 election, they "suffer from the same lack of understanding of women"s nature and identity as do old-line anti-abortionists," Kissling writes. She notes that this group has "already decided that a political effort to make abortion illegal is hopeless, which helps the pro-choice cause." According to Kissling, "Taking legality off the table" increases the prospects for "rational public discourse about all the factors at play in women"s decisions not to continue pregnancy and not to become mothers," but "[w]e are ... far from common ground between the new anti-abortionists and the pro-choice advocates."Members of this new group believe that data suggesting that many women decide to have abortions for financial reasons prove that "better economic support" for pregnant women "will result in more continued pregnancies and more women embracing motherhood," Kissling writes. In addition, they "assert that if adoption policies were friendlier," more women would choose adoption over abortion, according to Kissling. "But facts have little place in their strategy," as the policies they support "are already in place in much of Europe," and "few women who face unintended pregnancies in those countries opt out of abortion," Kissling writes. She adds, "Something much deeper influences a woman"s decision about what to do when she is pregnant and does not want to become a mother -- and the new anti-choicers don"t seem to have a clue about what this might be." For this group, "the outcome [of pregnancy] -- the new person -- is obviously so much more valuable than whatever short-term loss or pain the women might experience," Kissling writes. Therefore, they believe it is "not asking much of a woman who faces an unwanted, difficult or unintended pregnancy to shift the plan she had for this time in her life and continue the pregnancy," according to Kissling.Kissling lists four "positions taken by the new antiabortionists [that] illuminate this flawed thinking." The first is "[d]enying the "need" for abortion," she writes. Secondly, their "same sense of pregnancy as no big deal influences the new antiabortionists" unwillingness to embrace contraception," Kissling says. She adds that "[i]f we really understood what it meant for women to consent to becoming mothers, we would want them to be able to meet their moral obligation to their own identity by avoiding becoming pregnant." The third position is an attempt to make "sex sacred," Kissling writes, adding that if "creating new life is sacred, then we want men and women to have the tools necessary to fulfill the obligation to create life responsibly and not create it when they cannot -- or choose not to -- bring it to fruition." The fourth position is "[r]edefining adoption," Kissling continues. She asks whether adoption is "now a process of finding children for needy parents," adding, "Might it not be more generous of us as a society to work harder to make it possible for women to keep their children if they so wish?"Kissling writes that the "challenge to the new antiabortionists" is whether "women"s perspectives on the meaning of pregnancy and motherhood will be considered in their project" or if "their ethical frame will remain focused on the fetus." She asks, "How many of these women"s decisions will the new antiabortionists be able to say "yes" to?" Kissling concludes, "So far it seems that it is far more than abortion that is a stumbling block to common ground" (Kissling, Salon, 7/20).
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Department Of Justice, HHS Boosts Number Of Investigators, Prosecutors Looking At Medicare, Medicaid Fraud
HHS and the Department of Justice on Wednesday launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team to detect and prevent fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, the Washington Post reports (Johnson, Washington Post, 5/21). DOJ also plans to establish teams to address fraud in the Medicare Part D program and CHIP (Kennedy, AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/20). Wednesday"s announcement also included a recommendation by President Obama"s administration to include $311 million in the fiscal year 2010 budget to address health care fraud, which is a 50% increase from FY 2009. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, efforts to combat health care fraud will contribute to the administration"s health care overhaul plans (Clark/Weaver, McClatchy/Kansas City Star, 5/20). The task force, which will include HHS and DOJ staff members, law enforcement agents and prosecutors, will meet biweekly, CQ HealthBeat reports (Norman, CQ HealthBeat, 5/20). Under the plan, existing enforcement teams in Miami and Los Angeles will be expanded and new teams will be established in Houston and Detroit, where officials say suspicious billing patterns have emerged. In addition, the plan will set up task forces in 10 other major cities, which were not named (AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/20). The enforcement teams will increase site visits to durable medical equipment suppliers upon their enrollment. In addition, officials will expand training to help providers identify and prevent fraud or other mistakes (CQ HealthBeat, 5/20). The task force will use electronic claims data to detect "unusual billing problems," according to the Post (Washington Post, 5/21). HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the task force also intends to simplify billing systems and assist state officials in conducting Medicaid audits (CQ HealthBeat, 5/20). According to Holder, the joint task force will allow officials to share real-time intelligence data on health care fraud by monitoring claims payments, billing patterns and targeted surveillance (AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/20). Money
News of the day
People Think Bottled Water Is Healthy ... Sort Of
A small study has shown that people tend to believe that bottled water is somehow healthier than water from the tap. However, the research, published in the open access journal BMC Public Health, also shows that people are unsure exactly what these benefits might be and that they are rarely the main reason for choosing bottled.
Sexual Health

International Collaboration Funds Stem Cell Research

The potential of using stem cells to treat Alzheimer"s disease and other illnesses will be investigated by Victorian and Californian researchers under a US$22 million (US$28.7 million) collaboration, Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings said recently. The funding grants for four projects are the first step in a three-year collaboration, established last year between the Brumby Government and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), that will establish strategic projects on stem cell research aimed at accelerating treatments of disease. Other joint projects focus on moving basic research toward therapies by addressing safety, quality and technical hurdles in the safe use of stem cells for human therapies. "This collaboration highlights that Victoria and California are world leaders in biotechnology and stem cell research, and the Brumby Government is taking action with this project to improve the quality of life of the millions of people around the world suffering from Alzheimer"s disease, Parkinson"s disease and diabetes," Mr Jennings said. "These important projects are the first to emerge since the Premier, John Brumby, and I signed the historic agreement last year with CIRM president Alan Trounson to establish a pan-Pacific "stem cell airbridge" between Victoria and CIRM." Mr Jennings met with Professor Trounson, former director of the Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories at Monash University, and CIRM chairman Robert Klein at BIO2009, an international biotechnology convention in Atlanta, USA, to announce details of the collaboration. The Brumby Government will fund the Victorian teams while CIRM will fund the Californian teams. There are four joint projects so far being funded by the alliance. "With these grants, CIRM and Victoria have taken the first step in funding translational research that will be critical for the development of future therapies," Professor Trounson said. "We hope that these first projects will spur on greater cooperation and collaboration between other Victorian and Californian scientists and that this new alliance will continue to focus on helping patients and delivering new therapies in this cutting-edge medical field." Mr Klein said the battle against chronic diseases needed to be a global initiative. "The medical research mission must be global to capture the best minds of every nation to fight chronic diseases that have plagued mankind throughout history. The Australian collaboration with California marks a historic milestone for stem cell research in globalizing the battle against chronic disease," said Mr Klein. Victoria is home to more than 43 per cent of Australia"s medical research activity including specialist stem cell centres such as the Australian Stem Cell Centre, Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratory and the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute. The projects receiving Victorian Government and CIRM funding are: Australian Stem Cell Centre, Melbourne and the University of California, Irvine To determine whether stem cells may one day be able to be used in the clinic as a treatment for Alzheimer"s disease. Alzheimer"s is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 4.5 million Americans. Over 500,000 Australians live with the disease currently. There are currently no effective therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer"s. This project will use human embryonic stem cells which are transformed into human neural stem cells and test their ability to improve memory and function, without rejection by the immune system, in an animal model of Alzheimer"s disease. Professor Richard Boyd (Australia) and Frank LaFerla (California) will lead the project. Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Melbourne and Burnham Institute of Medical Research, La Jolla Parkinson"s disease severely debilitates about two per cent of the US population and approximately 80,000 Australians, with more than 2,225 new cases diagnosed each year in Victoria. Whilst there is currently no cure available for the disease, transplantation (to replace the dying nerve cells in the brain) offers long term hope for many patients. Using mouse and human embryonic stem cells, this collaboration will identify and isolate the best candidate cell for transplantation. The project will be led by Professor Colin Pouton, Dr Clare Parish (Australia) and Professor Evan Snyder (California). Australian Stem Cell Centre, Melbourne and the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla Human embryonic stem cells that have not yet been turned into specialised cell types are not suitable for transplant into a patient as they may grow unchecked and / or become the wrong cell type or types. There is a risk that these unspecialised cells may also form a type of benign tumour known as a teratoma. This collaboration will develop specific tools and quality control measures for scientists to identify and remove the rare unwanted cells from the specialised cells that are destined for use in the treatment of injury or disease, therefore increasing the safety of future cell therapies and overcoming a major barrier to the advancement of stem cell treatments. The project will be led by Dr Andrew Laslett (Australia) and Dr Jeanne Loring (California). Monash University and Novocell Inc, San Diego Human embryonic stem cells have great potential as the starting material for future treatments using cellular therapies. For example, insulin dependent diabetes is an illness that may one day be treated using a stem cell based therapy. However, there are both scientific and safety hurdles still to be overcome. This project will develop standardised tests to ensure the safety of future embryonic stem cell based products which may contribute to stem cell based treatments for a range of illnesses including diabetes. The project will be led by Professor Ed Stanley and Professor Andrew Elefanty (Australia) and Dr Justine Cunningham (California). Australian Stem Cell Centre


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