About.com Women's Issues

The Senate isn't Stupak - They Stick with Hyde

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:24:11 +0000

In tackling health care reform and abortion, the Senate has wisely embraced the old adage, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't."

They've opened debate on a health care bill that contains none of the controversial language of the Stupak Amendment -- an anti-choice compromise measure that would have severely restricted abortion coverage for anyone purchasing a government insurance plan or using government subsidies to obtain private insurance. Instead, the Senate is sticking with the existing restrictions on abortion imposed by the Hyde Amendment -- restrictions that have been in place in one form or another since 1977.

Why isn't the Senate with Stupak?

My colleague Tom Head, About.com Civil Liberties Guide and a staunch women's rights advocate, credits the efforts of activists: "[T]his was a pro-choice victory bolstered by one of the largest grassroots lobbying efforts in the history of the movement. We flooded our senators with calls, emails, and letters--and so far, it appears to be working."

Some are celebrating the Senate version. Others are fuming, saying the bill is no better than the House's Capps Amendment and "nothing but an accounting mechanism."

Even if the Senate passes a version that remains free of Stupak's restrictive abortion language, the final version to be hammered out by the House and Senate is still vulnerable to further erosion of women's reproductive rights. For both pro-life and pro-choice activists, the ongoing health care reform� battle remains a waiting game.

More on the Hyde and Capps Amendments including an explanation of each:

More About.com perspectives on the Senate version sans Stupak:

The Senate isn't Stupak - They Stick with Hyde originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 23:24:11.

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Mammogram Recommendations and Health Care Reform - Question (But Don't Shoot) the Messenger

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:01:57 +0000

Asking a cancer survivor if� you should listen to the new mammogram recommendations is like asking a mega-million dollar Powerball winner if you should buy a lottery ticket. You're going to get a very biased answer.

I should know. I'm a cancer survivor -- an ovarian cancer survivor -- diagnosed at age 33 when I was a stay-at-home mom with two little girls 9 months old and 3 years old.

If my cancer hadn't been caught early, I wouldn't be writing this today. Statistically speaking, I wouldn't have survived five years. This year, thanks to early treatment, I celebrated my 15th year of cancer survivorship.

That's why when the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) came up with new guidelines that contradicted everything women have been told up until now, I waited a long time to respond. Why?

The USPSTF consists of medical professionals who see this in clinical terms. I'm just another woman surviving cancer who sees this in personal terms.

'Clinical terms' means doctors and medical professionals can look at available data and figure out cost effectiveness, efficacy of early diagnosis and treatment, and measure the few it helps against the many it does little for. One prominent physician not on that task force -- noted breast cancer expert Dr. Susan Love -- came out early to strongly support the new recommendations, while I -- a not-so-prominent survivor also not on that task force -- waited to share my thoughts. *

'Personal terms' aren't so easily assessed and are significantly less important to clinicians, task forces, health care panels, and policy makers. But that doesn't mean they don't matter.

As we've seen, those who see the issue through 'personal terms' have come out in full force. A massive groundswell of angry opposition to the recommendations has the Obama administration backing away from it and pushing Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius forward to say that the findings aren't part of government policy.

'Personal terms' differ with the person telling the story.� My personal terms are simple and have a numeric value attached; they are the 15 years I've lived since my early cancer diagnosis.

They have been years deeply appreciated...well-lived with meaning and purpose.

I've seen both my daughters grow from sticky-faced toddlers to beautiful, funny, effervescent young women. I've cared for my mother in my home during her final weeks of life. I've picked up the pieces after my father's death, clearing out both his room in the nursing home and the house he shared with my mother for many years. I've brought significant women's issues to the table, first through radio and television shows I've produced and hosted, and now here on this site. And I've shared it all with a husband who has been with me through the good and the bad of 21 years of marriage.

I don't want to try and attach a monetary value to the productiveness of those 15 years of my life, but I'm sure I've contributed more to the U.S. economy than I've consumed in terms of medical care and treatment.

So, yes, I had a strong and instinctive reaction to the new recommendations announced Monday, and even after sitting on it for more than three days, my initial response hasn't changed, even after reading the opinions of phyicians, clinicians, pundits, politicans, and other survivors like me.

But I'm mindful that this an American perspective. In Europe, routine mammograms are not recommended for women under the age of 50. And other American journalists who report on health care and know this topic well say the new recommendations are extremely valid.

The irony that all this is happening during health care reform hasn't escaped me. I have enjoyed my 15 years because I had access to medical care and availed myself of the best diagnostic services and treatment options.

But during those same 15 years, millions of other women haven't been so lucky. They haven't had health insurance and haven't been able to pay for a doctor's visit, a mammogram, or other service that might have led to an early diagnosis. They lack the access I (and many others) take for granted -- access to essential medical care.

So even as Republicans warn of the perils of "rationed care" and point to the new breast cancer screening guidelines as proof, as a women's issues advocate I'm mindful that while gender inequity hurts, health care inequity kills.

Do I support the new breast cancer guidelines? No. But I also don't support not having universal health care in the United States. In the end, women who have health care coverage still can exercise their free will. They don't have to listen to government panels that say do this or don't do that as long as their health insurance covers their care. I'll echo what Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius advised women: "Go on doing what you've always done."

But as a country, we simply cannot afford to go on doing what we've always done. We need health care reform for all women, so that every woman can access the necessary treatment and care that will give her the same 15 years -- or more -- of life that I've enjoyed. Even with those crazy recommendations, we still have a choice. Millions of other women won't...unless we push panels, politicians, and policy to expand health care coverage to include anyone who wants it.

_{* Ironically, both Dr. Susan Love and I are listed in the National Cancer Survivor's Day Speakers Bureau Directory. In fact, her entry is directly above mine. She earns between $30,000 and $50,000 for each speaking engagement; I'd be happy to receive 1% of that and call it a day. She's been educated and trained in the field of oncology and has practiced and written books about cancer care. Me? I just lived through it.}

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Mammogram Recommendations and Health Care Reform - Question (But Don't Shoot) the Messenger originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 14:01:57.

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Newsweek's Sarah Palin Cover - "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sexism?"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:46:13 +0000

In August of this year, Runner's World magazine published an interview (conducted in June) with then-Alaska governor Sarah Palin. A warm-and-fuzzy feature somewhat light on politics, the exchange between interviewer and interviewee felt candid and real. It was a comfortable moment for the former GOP VP candidate who hasn't always fared so well with the media.

Flash forward to this week's Newsweek. There's Palin on the cover -- an image taken during the Runner's World photo shoot in June. She's wearing black shorts and a tomato-red running jacket that shows her curves. With hands on hips and one tanned leg bent at the knee, Palin's elbow rests on a chair draped with the American flag. The headline reads, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?"

Two articles within discuss her political influence and Republican concerns over her future plans, and her populist appeal and whether or not she can deliver.

But if you were to judge a book by its cover -- or a magazine, for that matter -- there's nothing 'substantive' in Palin's pose. It makes her look like the standard pin-up girl -- a piece of conservative political cheesecake. All fine and good for Newsweek since the cover accomplishes what the magazine intended; it makes Palin look like a bimbo.

Problem is, the pose is taken out of context. Shot for a running magazine, it was in keeping with the original article's content -- a puff piece on Palin as a runner. And Newsweek's decision to use it is flat out sexist -- a behavior they refuse to acknowledge.

Palin noted the sexism on her Facebook page and complained about it in an interview with Barbara Walters, but Jon Meacham, Newsweek's editor, is denying gender bias. He says it was selected because it was the most "interesting" photo they could find to "illustrate" the theme.

From Meacham's official statement: "We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard."

Meacham obviously doesn't care for Palin or her politics, but his magazine's actions don't occur in a vaccuum. As Jehmu Green, President of the Women's Media Center, points out:

What Mr. Meacham and his colleagues fail to realize is that, by portraying Sarah Palin in this light, they have added an additional barrier for all women and girls who aspire to political leadership. It is no coincidence that women make up only 17 percent of Congress while comprising 51 percent of the nation's population.

Green is infinitely kinder to Meacham than I would be were I to get his attention with a written statement...or meet him face to face. Because here's what I'd say: "Be honest, Jon. You did it to sell magazines. You did it because Palin's book, Going Rogue: An American Life, came out this week and you wanted to catch a little of that mighty wind in your own sails. We've all seen Palin's attractive face grace the covers of so many magazines that the standard portrait wouldn't do. You wanted to kick it up a notch, and that's why you did what you did. I can understand it. I don't condone it, but I can understand your impulse."

I'm sad that I understand his impulse, and sadder still that these types of impulses aren't being controlled -- they're being indulged. (Take a look at CNBC's Donnie Deutsch's initial comments on Sarah Palin last year and you'll see what I mean.)

What we didn't learn from the 2008 campaign we are doomed to repeat in 2012, and we're getting an early preview of it right now with the Going Rogue book tour. What's happening to Sarah Palin as she rears her head and re-enters the airspace of the lower 48 is becoming downright ugly.

The attitude of some media outlets comes dangerously close to a specific response that's triggered when a rape occurs and the victim is very attractive, sexually appealing, dressed to impress, extroverted and flirtatious. There is recognition of a crime having been perpetrated and some sympathy, but there's also an underlying buzz that blames the victim for what happened.

We've all heard those words.

"She asked for it."

Sarah Palin did not ask to be turned into a pin-up girl on the cover of Newsweek. It's a classic case of bait and switch. She wouldn't have agreed to pose that way for Runner's World if she knew it would be taken out of context and used in this way.

And even if you believe she did "ask for it," it's not a valid excuse to go after her solely on the basis of gender. When have we ever seen a beefcake shot of a male political figure in a comparable pose on the cover of a national newsmagazine? Never, because men's bodies don't sell in the same way that women's bodies sell.

Sarah Palin was pulled from relative obscurity and thrust into a position that she may or may not have been qualified for. She approached it with energy and crafted a recognizable brand with her "pitbull with lipstick" comment. She didn't possess the standard resume that most VP candidates bring to the job. But as she's fond of saying, she didn't blink.

Sarah Palin is Sarah Palin. We all know who she is by now, and what she represents. Her book may be at the top of the bestseller lists, but we're reading it because we either absolutely adore and admire her, or we think she's a train wreck and we have to see the blood, the mangled metal, and get a body count. (A lot of those bodies appear to have been members of Team McCain.)

She did a non-confrontational 'first interview' with Oprah and looked great but said little. She followed up with Barbara Walters in an interview that had more substance but still showed us Palin's strength is not in foreign policy.

Nobody is going to change their minds in this latest Palin-go-round of public appearances and media madness. It's back to middle America and rock-star treatment on her book tour. Her fans in Grand Rapids, Michigan, slept out overnight for a chance to meet her at a Barnes & Noble bookstore. An 18-year-old spent much of her birthday standing in line to see Palin and have her copy of Going Rogue signed.

Over the past week we've heard the oft-repeated factoid that 60% of the country doesn't think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president. That number will only be relevant if she runs in 2012. And as I've written before, Sarah Palin's fortunes seem to turn on a dime.

But let her run or not run on her own merits. Don't play the gender card in covering her, not now or in the future. If she's unqualified, let her hang herself with her own rope. If she tells untruths or misrepresents herself, fact-check her statements and call her on that. If she is mobbed by gushing, starry-eyed crowds, accept that there will alway be those who like her because she is unlike any other candidate before her.

Don't say or do anything that feeds into her scorn for the "liberal media elite" by going after her just because she's a woman. McCain picked her in part to appeal to those disenfranchised, dissatisfied former Hillary Clinton supporters. Don't add more fuel to that fire by making independent, moderate Republican or liberal women angry enough at the media gender bias to start feeling sorry for her and seeing her in a different light. Because if you continue this sort of sexist coverage, Sarah Palin won't be the only one "going rogue" in America.

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Newsweek's Sarah Palin Cover - "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sexism?" originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 22:46:13.

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Missed Sarah Palin on Oprah? Here's What Happened

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:26:23 +0000

A compilation of links to all the live blogging I did on the Oprah show with Sarah Palin, just broadcast minutes ago. In seven parts, with highlights below:

Part I - Oprah Snub, VP Phone Call, Vetting, Bristol's Pregnancy, Naive About the Media
Part II - Being Handled, Clothing Double-Standard, Palin Family Makeover, Michigan Statement, Being Scripted, Why They Lost
Part III - The Couric Interview, Palin's Annoyance, "The Perky One," Abortion, Down's Syndrome, Telling Todd
Part IV - Levi Johnston, "Ricky Hollywood," Playgirl Spread as 'Porn,' Bristol as a Mom, Thanksgiving with Levi?
Part V - Palin Family in Wasilla, a Palin Halloween, Unconventional Marriage
Part VI - Election Night, Handling the Responsibility, Palin Support System, Not a Quitter, Reloading, 2012
Part VII - Palin Talk Show Rumor, Palin's Stay-At-Home-Mom Days,� Oprah as Inspiration, Interview Wrap Up

Missed Sarah Palin on Oprah? Here's What Happened originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 17:26:23.

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Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part VII

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:00:29 +0000

Oprah: "One final question. Should I be worried because I heard you're going to get your own talk show."

Palin: "Oprah, you're the queen of talk shows. There's nothing to worry about. And you are. And you can't shut off my mic. The inspiration that you have provided in the 90s - those were the days...I was a stay at home mom, inspired by the challenges you were facing, being a normal American woman facing challenges... I appreciated that."

Oprah: "Anything else you want to say? It's all in the book."

Palin: "I get through it with God and Todd."

Audience applause. Show ends with Oprah promoting Sarah Palin's book due out tomorrow and saying, "Thanks, Governor Palin."

revised 7:23 pm

Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part VII originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 17:00:29.

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Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part VI

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:56:10 +0000

Oprah: "You say you were silenced on Election Night...You look sad."

Palin: "You don't run a race to lose....not so much disappointed I wasn't allowed to speak, but the explanation was that VPs don't give speeches" and she says she knew that to be false. But she wanted to tell the audience that we should move forward; she had hoped to share the message, "United we stand."

Oprah: Asked Palin about being so close to the presidency. As the parent of five children, and as a woman so close to the office, what would Palin do in a situation of crisis? "I know we don't ask this of men...but how would you handle the responsibility?"

Palin: "I would handle this the way men would handle this."

Oprah: "But they have wives."

Palin: "But I have Todd - there's so much equality.... My mom had warned me 'Don't think you can't have it all as an American woman, but some things have to be put on the back burner' .... I'm a believer in making choices at the right time.... I have a great support system, all the aunties and the uncles....I wouldn't be preaching this to all women because I have this."

Oprah: "After finishing the book, Track [Palin's oldest son] called to say, 'Mom, no dishonorable discharge.'"

Palin: Indicated that she knew Track was afraid others would think she was a quitter. She knew that she wouldn't run for a second term -- "There were so many opposition researchers" many of them "sent by the Obama administration" that she wouldn't be able to talk about what she wanted.

Oprah: "But why quit?" Oprah didn't understand why Palin felt she'd� be better able to fight ' as an ordinary citizen.'

Palin: Wanted to be able to speak without worrying about a lawsuit. "My dad says, 'She's not retreating, she's reloading."

Oprah: "Are you thinking of 2012?"

Palin: "I'm thinking of 2010."

Oprah: "Would you tell me if you were?"

Palin: "No I wouldn't." Palin wants to prove that you don't have to have a title to speak out and make a difference -- that ordinary citizens can do that.

Oprah: "They sure can. We'll take a break."

Continued in Part VII

revised 7:20 pm

Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part VI originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 16:56:10.

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Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part V

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:46:03 +0000

This segment opens with a short visit to the Palin's at home in Wasilla, Alaska, captured on video.

External shot of Palin home.Inside the home,� Sarah is diapering Trig on the floor. She's wearing a T-shirt and running shorts. Piper and Palin then head to The Edge Gym and Sarah is shown in an aerobics class. We see her driving around with the kids, while in a voiceover Palin contrasts this with where they were a year ago - "It's nice to not be handled - to go where I want to go." Scenes show the family at Halloween, making caramel apples along with Palin's sister and parents. Trig is dressed as a chicken in a fuzzy costume. As we see Piper trick-or-treating, Palin says, "I promised Piper to keep my distance and not disrupt the fun she has with her friends... She's so acommodating...They all put up with a lot."

Back in the studio, the interview continues.

Oprah: "What's this been like for Todd and your marriage?"

Palin: "We've had an unconventional marriage with him working on the North Slope - we're apart for months. We met when he was 16 and I was 17....it's a great partnership...a lot of equality in the marriage."

Oprah: "Back in a moment."

Continued in Part VI

revised 7:11 pm

Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part V originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 16:46:03.

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Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview Part IV

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:39:03 +0000

Oprah: "Everybody's waiting on the Levi question." Levi Johnston, the father of Palin's grandson Trig, has said "a lot of unflattering things about the Palin family" in interviews in print and on television.

Palin: "Because so much of the discussion has to do with Tripp, I don't think a national television show is the place" to discuss the baby's father. However, Palin takes a shot at Johnston, saying, "I hear he goes by the name 'Ricky Hollywood'" because he's making the rounds to promote himself. She alludes to a� Playgirl photo spread he's doing, saying, "I call it porn." She adds that he doesn't see the baby much because of his media tours. "I pray for Levi."

Oprah: "For someone who's been in the inner circle and then goes out to the media and says things, that makes you feel...what?"

Palin: "I felt ... they were handling him and then sending him onto these stages" and that he's not telling the truth. She states he never lived with Bristol, and that is proof that the rest of his statements are lies.

Oprah: "He's saying that you didn't really raise the kids."

Palin: "He's a teenager" and doesn't realize how he's being handled. She moves onto her daughter, noting that "Bristol is the most amazing mom" and she's there to remind other teenagers that there are consequences in having teenage sex.

Oprah: "Will he be invited to Thanksgiving dinner?"

Palin: Yes. Because he's Tripp's dad, he'll always be part of the family -- "he needs that 'do over' .... we're not really into the drama."

Oprah: "So is he invited or not?"

Palin: Indicates there's an open invitation to come over.

Continued in Part V

updated 6:50 pm

Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview Part IV originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 16:39:03.

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Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part III

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:31:16 +0000

Questions about the Katie Couric interview open this segment.

Oprah: "Were you prepped?"

Palin: "It was supposed to be a lighthearted working mom interview - if the first went well, we'd do the second...The first did not go well."

Oprah: "Why did you do the second?"

Palin: Well, they were scheduled, she says. "I don't blame people for thinking I was ill-qualified."

Oprah: "You say...that you thought Couric had a partisan agenda."

Palin: "Her agenda was not to show me in the best light" and to not let her gaffes go without comment.

Oprah: "Was it a seminal defining moment for you?"

Palin: "No it was not" - although she knew it was a bad interview.

Oprah: The books and magazines question [clip shown] during the Couric interview -- "Now obviously you read books and magazines. Why didn't you just name some?"

Palin: Of course I read, "but I was already so annoyed ... it was unprofessional to show my annoyance on my sleeve" but she rolled her eyes and was annoyed with the questions Couric kept asking, which implied that she wasn't a reader or well-versed in what was going on. Palin calls it "the problem with the state of journalism today. No matter what I say, it will be twisted."

Oprah: "We've all beeen in situations where we wished we had done something different.... Didn't you wish you had said what books and magazines you had read?"

Palin: "We'd just come back from an amazing rally... I was so pumped up... and there's the perky one with the microphone"

Oprah: "You mean Katie"

Palin: Yes..."She asked me twelve different times about abortion and the morning after pill" -- Couric didn't seem to respect the culture of women as Palin saw it.... "I can certainly understand why a woman would do away with that" referring to abortion. "Understanding that that thought would go through a woman's mind, yes, there are less than ideal circumstances....but we'll plow through and get through them."

Oprah: "When you had to telll your husband the baby had Down's Syndrome, was that hard?"

Palin: Admitted it was hard, told Todd the baby was a boy, then said the baby had an extra chromosome and admitted, "I was frightened when I first heard the news." In contrast, Todd knew that it was going to be okay. Palin asked the question, "Why us God?" but Todd didn't have that reaction. He responsed that "it's going to be all right."

Continued in Part IV

updated 6:38 pm

Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part III originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 16:31:16.

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Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part II

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:20:11 +0000

Oprah tells how Palin was told what to wear, what to say, what to eat...and there's a brief discussion of how staffers talked about the Atkins Diet with Palin.

Palin: "We shouldn't have been focusing on what I eat" with all the other weighty issues in the air.

Oprah: "We were at another convention [Democratic National Convention] when we saw the McCain announcement [clip played] and there you were. Quite frankly, I thought, 'whoah, where did she come from?"

Palin:� She thought McCain was a maverick and was representing the working man in choosing Palin. At the Republican National Convention, the wardrobe was selected for her. Palin says she thought, "Oh, good. I didn't like to shop.... I didn't think that it [the wardrobe budget] would be controversial. That was a double standard I discuss in the book."

Oprah: "You asked, 'Why was the Palin family being made over for the convention. Is this the Palin family on an episode of What Not to Wear?"

Palin: "How easy it is for a male candidate...wearing the same thing over and over again. I had an appreciate for Hillary Clinton and what she had to go through."

Oprah: Asks Palin about debate preparation and the stacks of cards she was given. The front of the cards had questions, and the backs of cards were filled with what Palin saw as 'non-answers.'� "Were you surprised at how they wanted to control you and force you to say things?" Oprah follows up with a question about staying on-script.

Palin: "I'm the candidate. At the end of the day they [McCain staffers] were doing what they were supposed to do. My handlers ... we never could find that script." She followed up with a discussion of the Michigan incident, when Palin was "told 'you went rogue on us.' I didn't know we had pulled out of Michigan."

Oprah: "If you'd been allowed to be more of yourself and less scripted, would you have won?"

Palin: Expressed her belief that it didn't matter because of the shift in the economy. Because of the turn of events, Republicans weren't going to win because "unfortunately we represented the status quo"� to voters. Palin says she doesn't feel she was responsible for losing the race.

Continued in Part III

updated 6:30 pm

Live Blogging Oprah Palin Interview - Part II originally appeared on About.com Women's Issues on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 16:20:11.

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