Last week, the pro-Romney Restore Our Future PAC accidentally posted a new ad called “Baggage,” targeting Newt Gingrich for his 30 years as a Washington insider and his multiple positions on several issues, including his past support for a national individual health insurance mandate. “And Newt was a long-time supporter of a national health insurance mandate, the centerpiece of Obamacare,” the ad charged. “Maybe that’s why George Will called Gingrich, ‘the least conservative candidate.’”

At the time, I observed that the Romney attack is peculiar since the “baggage” Gingrich is accused of carrying is also borne by the Massachusetts governor, who signed a state law that included the personal responsibility requirement and has previously advocated for a federal mandate. Well, the Romney folks seem to agree, because as Greg Sargent has discovered, the new version of the ad edits out any mention of Gingrich having supported the mandate. Watch both side-by-side:

As Sargent observes, “Clearly, Romney did once envision the mandate as a solution that could be national, or quasi-national, in scope. So you can see why it was probably a good idea to leave the attack on Gingrich for favoring a national mandate on the cutting room floor.”

Dressed in the trappings of farcical arguments and absurd antics, Ohio’s “heartbeat” bill marches closer to becoming the most radical anti-abortion law in the nation. The bill bans abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which normally occurs around six or seven weeks into a pregnancy — or before many women even know they’re pregnant.

Now being considered in the Ohio Senate, the bill fails to include any exception for rape or incest victims or for the mental health of the mother. The bill only allows an abortion after a heartbeat is detected if the life of the mother is threatened. But, as doctors told lawmakers yesterday, this exception forces physicians to put women’s lives at risk to justify the abortion. Indeed, one doctor explained that he would’ve had to wait for a woman’s “iliac vessels to rupture” to ensure that the necessary abortion “was an imminent threat”:

Dr. Matthew Mingione, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in Columbus, said one of his patients was devastated to learn her pregnancy was in the abdomen, not in the uterus. It was attached to a major blood vessel, creating a high risk that she could bleed to death.

“(She) had a safe abortion at 12 weeks with minimally invasive techniques, saving her life,” Mingione testified. “If House Bill 125 had been law, we would have had to wait for her iliac vessels to rupture before intervening in order to be sure that this was an imminent threat to (her) life.”

Cleveland obstetrician Dr. Lisa Perriera told Senate Republicans, “Lawmakers do not belong in the consultation room with me and my patients.” She added, “Banning abortion has never stopped abortion from happening. It has only made abortion unsafe or more difficult to obtain.”

A day before a new HHS study found that the Affordable Care Act has extended health coverage to at least 2.5 million young adults in the United States, Rick Santorum sang a different tune about health reform, calling it the “final death knell” for America.

Speaking at a medical supplies company in Waterloo, Iowa yesterday, the former Pennsylvania senator levied some of his harshest rhetoric yet at President Obama, accusing him of transforming America into a fascist state like Italy under Mussolini. “We are ever-gradually – and not-so-gradually in the last couple of years – edging our way toward the same kind of country that my grandfather left,” Santorum said.

The Republican presidential contender continued, unabated, with his belief that by helping provide poor people with health coverage, America faces an existential crisis. Santorum told the Iowa audience that health care reform is what “got [him] into this race,” because he’s “seen what that [...] final death knell will be to America.”

SANTORUM: They are fundamentally different than my grandfather. He cared about freedom. He cared about it more than anything else. Didn’t want to be taken care of by Mussolini and told what to do and his kids grow up and march in whatever military and conformity that the fascists were dictating at the time. As I was saying to Jim today earlier, I think we’re at a critical junction of American history right now where that freedom that my grandfather fought for is fundamentally at stake. We are ever-gradually – and not-so-gradually in the last couple of years – edging our way toward the same kind of country that my grandfather left. [...]

What got me into this race was Obamacare. I’m no history professor like Newt Gingrich, but I am a little bit of a student of history and I’ve seen what that, I believe, final death knell will be to America of having government control that very critical aspect of our life, which is access to the care that we need to stay alive.

Already, the Affordable Care Act has lowered prescription drug costs for seniors, provided health care tax credits to small businesses, and extended life-saving care to the sickest Americans.

Santorum will have his work cut out for him trying to convince Americans that these benefits of health care reform, and those still to come, are indicative of an imminent death knell for the United States.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman heard oral arguments on the Center for Reproductive Rights motion for contempt against the Food and Drug Administration for ignoring scientific evidence and denying women of all ages over-the counter access to the morning after pill. Last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled FDA scientists, citing concerns over the ability of younger girls to “understand the label and use the product appropriately.”

Korman rejected the organization’s motion, but told the Center “to file the appropriate legal motions” and indicated that he would “consider reviewing the government’s refusal to make it easier for girls and women to get the drug.” During the hearing, Korman pressed the FDA on why Sebelius denied over-the-counter access to women 17 and under if she was only worried about the youngest of teens and added that the administration’s handling of the case raised concerns about “whether the decision was based on politics or science.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Landau said “he couldn’t answer that question, both because it was proprietary information and because the issue hadn’t actually been raised for the court to rule on.”

Korman has been very critical of the government’s handling of the morning after pill in the past. In 2009, he found that the Bush FDA acted “arbitrarily” and “capriciously” in restricting over-the-counter access to younger women under 18 and “accused the government of letting ‘political considerations, delays and implausible justifications for decision-making’ cloud the approval process.” Korman’s order forced the FDA to lower the over-the-counter availability age to 17. On Tuesday, he suggested, “it seems to me like we’re going through a re-run.”

At least 2.5 million younger Americans now have health insurance as a result of a provision in the Affordable Care Act that allows adults to stay on their parents’ health care plans until 26 years of age, the Associated Press reports. The Obama administration is expected to release additional data later this afternoon:

Using unpublished quarterly statistics from the government’s ongoing National Health Interview Survey, analysts in Sebelius’ policy office determined that nearly 36 percent of those age 19-25 were uninsured in the third calendar quarter of 2010, before the law’s provision took effect. That translates to more than 10.5 million people.

By the second calendar quarter of 2011, the proportion of uninsured young adults had dropped to a little over 27 percent, or about 8 million people. The difference — nearly 2.5 million getting coverage — can only be the result of the health care law, administration officials said, because the number covered by public programs like Medicaid went down slightly. Overall, nearly 30 million Americans are between the ages of 19 to 25. For those who are little older, ages 26-35, the uninsured rate went up during the same period. “From September 2010 to June 2011, coverage rose only among those adults affect by the policy,” said the HHS report.

Look:

Incidentally, while Republicans are seeking to repeal the whole of the Affordable Care Act — including this provision — some support the dependent policy. The GOP’s 2009 alternative health care plan would have allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ plan until age 25 and current presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich has claimed, “That particular piece there is nothing wrong with. I didn’t say there is anything wrong with that.” More conservative members like Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Jack Kingston (R-GA) have vocally opposed the provision, however, arguing that it undermines young people’s independence.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 2.5 million more young adults don’t have to live with the fear and uncertainty of going without health insurance,” said Sebelius. “Moms and dads around the country can breathe a little easier knowing their children are covered.”