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Arrest Made In Firebombing Of Planned Parenthood Supporter’s Office

By Guest Blogger posted from ThinkProgress Politics on Mar 21, 2012 at 5:11 pm

Fort Worth, Texas fire officials announced today that they have made an arrest in yesterday’s firebombing of Texas State Senator’s Sen. Wendy Davis’ (D) office. Davis, who joined the Senate in 2009, is an outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood and other progressive causes, although officials have cautioned that they do not yet have a clear motive for the attack.

According to fire officials, two Molotov cocktails were thrown into Davis’ Fort Worth office just after 4 p.m. yesterday. Two staffers were in the office and extinguished the fire. Nobody was hurt and Davis was not in the office at the time of the attack.

The firebombing came just a week after Texas announced it would block Planned Parenthood clinics from enrolling in the Texas Women’s Health Program, which extends Medicaid coverage for reproductive services to certain lower-income women.

-Zachary Bernstein

Sebelius Promises Florida Will Have An Insurance Exchange

By Guest Blogger on Mar 21, 2012 at 3:10 pm

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has refused to implement the Affordable Care Act in his state, claiming, “It’s not the law of the land. I don’t believe it will ever be the law of the land.” If the law is upheld by the Supreme Court, however, Scott could end up with no say in the matter.

Yesterday in Miami, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made it clear that Florida would have to abide by the law and form a health insurance exchange, which would allow Floridians to shop around for insurance plans, by 2014. If Florida does not take action to form an exchange by then, Sebelius promised, the federal government will do it for them:

“What we have said to states is: ‘[What] we need to know at the beginning of 2013 is whether or not you intend to do this,’” she explains. “We are responsible in the law for putting together a federal exchange for Floridians.”

State lawmakers have been warned that if they fail to follow the law, the federal government will step in and create an exchange for them.

“They will have a deadline to meet if they choose not to move ahead with the state based exchange,” Sebelius says. “We will launch an enrollment process and a federal exchange for the citizens of Florida.”

Scott has made no secret of his disdain for the law, even as it offers much-needed aid for the state and its residents. Rather than accept grant money to pay for disease prevention and other programs, Scott turned the money down supposedly on principle. (He did, however, accept $2.5 million for abstinence-only sex education.) Meanwhile, Florida has the third-highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation and three of the ten highest spending metropolitan areas, on top of a $3.7 billion budget deficit.

Sebelius noted that, if the federal government established an exchange in 2014, grants would start coming into the state. Until then, however, the federal government “cannot put the services together that they are turning down…unfortunately, it’s the most underserved Floridians that are the victims of that choice.” That could change within two years, but that is too long a wait for many.

-Zachary Bernstein

NEWS FLASH

Survey: Most Small Businesses Are Not Planning On Dropping Health Care Coverage In 2014 | Sixty-percent of small businesses are planning to continue offering health care coverage to their employees in 2014 when health reforms are enacted, according to a survey relased today by eHealth, Inc. eHealth’s Small Employer Health Insurance Survey interviewed 236 small businesses, many of them family owned and operated, and found that 69 percent of employers who considered themselves knowledgeable about the Affordable Care Act had no plans to eliminate coverage for employees. The findings in the eHealth survey are largely consistent with previous reports from GfK Custom Research North America and the Congressional Budget Office that assert health care reform will not lead significant numbers of employers to eliminate employer-sponsored health care coverage. — Fatima Najiy

By Guest Blogger on Mar 21, 2012 at 2:02 pm

Politics

Top Romney Adviser Says Romney Can Change His Positions After The Primaries: ‘It’s Almost Like An Etch-A-Sketch’

By Alex Seitz-Wald posted from ThinkProgress Politics on Mar 21, 2012 at 1:05 pm

Mitt Romney can’t be held accountable for his extreme right-wing views, at least according to his campaign’s senior adviser, who said the candidate should be given a “reset button” on any positions he’s taken during the primary campaign if he wins the nominations and faces off against President Obama in the fall.

Appearing on CNN this morning, Romney Communications Director Eric Fehrnstrom was asked if he’s concerned that Romney may alienate general election voters with some of the hard-right positions he’s taken during the primary to appeal to conservatives. Fehrnstrom brushed this concern off:

HOST: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election?

FEHRNSTROM: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again.

Watch it:

Polls show Romney has lost support among independent voters as the primary campaign has forced him further to the right.

It’s unclear if Fehrnstrom expects people to just forget some of the fairly radical stances Romney has taken on everything from immigration, to contraception, to climate change, or if he expects the candidate to change his positions on those issues in the coming months — something Romney is certainly known for doing. As Fox commentator Brit Hume said of Romney last year, “You are only allowed a certain number of flips before people doubt your character.”

NEWS FLASH

Alaska Lawmaker: Women Should Obtain Permission From Men Before Undergoing An Abortion | Like several conservative states across the country, Alaska is considering anti-abortion bills that would mandate ultrasounds for women seeking abortions and prohibit state agencies or employees from referring women to “abortion counseling, or another abortion-related service.” Such extreme measures have been rejected — and mocked — by the general public, and have also exposed the sexist and patronizing world views of their sponsors. For instance, a lawmaker in Idaho was recently forced to walk back his suggestion that “a doctor should ask a woman who says she was raped if the pregnancy could have been ’caused by normal relations in a marriage’ and now an Alaska legislator is facing blowback over an insensitive comment of his own. The Mudlfats reports that State Rep. Alan Dick recently “said that he doesn’t believe that when a woman is pregnant, it’s really ‘her pregnancy’” and “would advocate for criminalizing women who have an abortion without the permission via written signature from the man who impregnated her.” “If I thought that the man’s signature was required… required, in order for a woman to have an abortion, I’d have a little more peace about it,” he said. Such remarks suggest that the GOP’s effort to restrict access to abortion aren’t just about outlawing a particular procedure — they’re also aimed at ensuring that women are subservient to men.

NEWS FLASH

72% Of Virginia Voters Say Govt Shouldn’t Try To Convince Women Seeking Abortions To Change Their Minds | A Quinnipiac University poll released today found that 52 percent of Virginians opposed the state’s new ultrasound law. Men were more strongly opposed to the law, with 56 percent disapproving, compared to a plurality of women, 49 percent. Majorities of independent voters and Democrats also said they are against the ultrasound requirement. When asked whether the government should pass laws to try and convince women to change their minds about seeking an abortion, 72 percent of respondents said they should not, including 57 percent of Republicans.

-Zachary Bernstein

By Guest Blogger on Mar 21, 2012 at 10:01 am

Arizona Lawmaker: Women Should ‘Watch An Abortion Being Performed’ Prior To Having It

By Igor Volsky on Mar 21, 2012 at 8:30 am

Arizona Rep. Terri Proud (R)

The Arizona legislature is considering at least two separate bills that would significantly limit women’s access to abortion by banning the procedure after 20 weeks of gestation and strip funding to Planned Parenthood. But those restrictions don’t go far enough for conservative lawmaker Rep. Terri Proud (R) who told a constituent in an email that women should be required to “watch an abortion being performed” prior to having it:

“Personally I’d like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a ‘surgical procedure’. If it’s not a life it shouldn’t matter, if it doesn’t harm a woman then she shouldn’t care, and don’t we want more transparency and education in the medical profession anyway? We demand it everywhere else.

Until the dead child can tell me that she/he does not feel any pain – I have no intentions of clearing the conscience of the living – I will be voting YES.”

Proud made headlines earlier this year when she sponsored a bill requiring the Bible to be taught as an elective in high school, but not the Quran. “The Quran hasn’t influenced Western culture the way the Bible has,” she said, noting students already learn about some ancient religions, including Greek and Roman gods, in their coursework. “We’ve put so much fear around any discussion of the Bible that I think it’s really causing our kids to miss out.” The measure passed the House and is now in the Senate.

Proud is now co-sponsoring a measure that would allow employers to opt ou of covering birth control in their health insurance plans.

Morning CheckUp: March 21, 2012

By Igor Volsky on Mar 21, 2012 at 7:00 am

IPAB repeal hits House floor: “The House begins debate on repealing the healthcare reform law’s cost-cutting panel on Wednesday after the bill cleared the House Rules Committee late Tuesday afternoon. A floor vote could happen Wednesday or Thursday. The Rules Committee approved six amendments to the bill, which ties repeal of the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) to medical malpractice caps.” [The Hill]

The consequences of repealing the mandate: “On Monday, when the Supreme Court hears arguments about whether the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, the justices will also contemplate a policy issue: Is it possible to reform the private insurance market, making affordable coverage available to all, without an individual mandate?” [Kaiser Health News]

Pennsylvania to pass anti-health reform amendment: “Pennsylvania legislators are poised to become the latest to offer voters a chance to say yes or no to a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, under challenges that have spread nationwide. A measure pending in the state Senate would let citizens ban laws forcing people to obtain health insurance, except under court order.” [Bloomberg]

Utah governor signs 72-hour abortion waiting period: “Utah Governor Gary Herbert has just signed the state’s proposed 72-hour mandatory waiting period for an abortion, making Utah the second state to attempt to force a woman to wait three days from her first visit to a clinic in order to terminate a pregnancy.” [RHRealityCheck]

High-risk pools program still struggling to attract enrollees: “The PCIP program, created under the 2010 health law, was allocated $5 billion to cover people nationwide until 2014. But premiums are expensive, and only about 49,000 people have signed up so far. At least nine states have asked for and received additional funding to cover their costs.” [Kaiser Health News]

Washington Democrats will make another push to advance abortion insurance bill: “Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday that they will try to pass a bill during the current special session requiring insurers who cover maternity care to also pay for abortions. The measure passed out of the House during the legislative session that ended March 8 but failed in the Senate after a dramatic attempt to bring it to the floor during a Republican budget coup failed by three votes.” [AP]

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