Dr. Sanjay Gupta Obama's Pick for Surgeon General
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN, is Obama's pick for surgeon general, and, good news, he opposes Bush's provider conscience expansion: Newsbusters reports that Gupta has said "...[I]t's a bit of a slippery slope. I mean, when you say, I'm not going to provide care based on my own conscience...you can imagine that opens up a whole wide range of possibilities, in terms of what is going to be treated and what is not."
American Prospect blogger Ezra Klein is pleased, too, suggesting that we "Expect Gupta to be doing more than health education...According to Howard Kurtz, Gupta has negotiated ‘an expanded role in providing health policy advice.' And if he's advising the project, he'll almost certainly be advocating for it, too. Which means Sanjay Gupta, arguably the nation's most trusted health care authority, will back on TV screens arguing for Obama's universal health care plan, lending it his credibility as a doctor, a trusted media presence, and the nation's surgeon general."
Teen Birth Rate Increases in 26 States
Both the number of teens giving birth and the rate at which teens are giving birth are going up, says the National Center for Health Statistics. USA Today concludes that "the rise in teens having babies is geographically broad-based and represents most regions of the USA." Does this mark a departure from a 30 year trend in decreasing teen birth rates? "It occurred among teens 15-17 and 17-19 and among whites, blacks and Hispanics, and now we know it occurred in most of the states," said Kristin Moore, senior scholar at the nonprofit Child Trends. "It appears to be quite a general pattern, which makes me think it might not be a blip but a turn-around."
Focus on the Family Opposes Daschle Confirmation
Sen. Tom Daschle is up for Senate confirmation as President-Elect Obama's new Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday, and Focus on the Family is encouraging its members to urge their senators to vote no. Right Wing Watch reports that Focus on the Family has issued an action alert opposing the confirmation of the (their words) "pro-abortion lawmaker." LifeNews.com worries that if Daschle plays a role in Obama's health care reform, it "could possibly include abortion coverage or mandating that hospitals or insurance companies cover abortions."
Maternity Leave Healthier for Mothers, Babies
A new UC Berkeley study finds that when mothers take maternity leave before delivery, the rate of Caesarean section deliveries sharply decreases, reports the Contra Costa Times:
Women who took a break from work after their 35th week of pregnancy were four times less likely to require the costly surgery, compared with women who worked almost up to their delivery date, according the study, which appears in the January/February issue of Women's Health Issues...."We don't have a culture in the United States of taking rest before the birth of a child, because there is an assumption that the real work comes after the baby is born," said Sylvia Guendelman, professor of maternal and child health at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and lead author of the study.
University of Wisconsin Clinic Plans to Offer Second-Trimester Abortions; Groups Protest
The Alliance Defense Fund is claiming that the University of Wisconsin's plans to provide second-trimester abortions at a Madison clinic will be illegal because state-paid doctors will provide the abortions. But "the abortions themselves would be paid for by insurance and patient fees, not public money," the Chicago Tribune reports. Plans for the clinic were developed after the area's sole doctor providing second-trimester abortions retired.
Rick Warren's Connections in Uganda
On the Daily Beast, Max Blumenthal takes a close look at the oft-lauded work Rick Warren has done on HIV/AIDS in Africa. Writes Blumenthal, "[A]n investigation into Warren's involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren's allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent's most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda..." Blumenthal details the way in which a successful evidence-based prevention program in Uganda was dismantled in favor of an abstinence-only approach, with support from Warren.
