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Health

Georgia Senate Passes Watered Down ‘Fetal Pain’ Bill

By Intern on Mar 27, 2012 at 12:30 pm

Women protest against anti-abortion bills in Georgia. (Source: AP)

State legislators across the country have been debating several bills to limit women’s access to abortion, from cutting off funding to putting more barriers in their way. Lawmakers in Georgia have been considering one of those bills — a measure that would prevent women from receiving abortions 20 weeks after fertilization — and the Senate passed an amended version of the legislation. A bipartisan group of senators agreed to an amended version of the controversial GOP-backed House Bill 954. The amended bill passed on a 36-19 vote, though it’s unclear whether Republicans in the state House will accept the changes.

The original legislation, sponsored by Republican Rep. Doug McKillip, would have effectively outlawed abortion 20 weeks, the point where the lawmaker said fetuses can feel pain — a concept that has been widely disputed by many doctors. Although exceptions were allowed in cases where a pregnancy threatened the life or health of the women, no exemption would be granted in cases of rape or incest. The law, once enacted, would have “cut by about six weeks the time women in Georgia may have an elective abortion.”

At the last minute, members of the Senate adopted a key change that “would allow women to get an abortion even after the five-month mark if a doctor determined a fetus has a fatal congenital or chromosomal defect.” Under current Georgia law, women are permitted to get abortions for any reason during the first six months of a pregnancy. Abortions are also legal during the last three months of pregnancy, but “only to protect a woman’s life or her physical or mental health.” Opponents of the 20 week ban argue that most late-term abortions are sought out by parents “who learn their unborn child will not survive outside the womb.”

“I think we need to give doctors and their patients that opportunity,” said Republican Sen. John Bulloch. He added that lawmakers should “not punish a pregnant woman.”

The passage of HB 954 would make Georgia the seventh state to ban abortions after 20 weeks:

Six states — Nebraska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Alabama — have similar “fetal pain” restrictions; a seventh, North Carolina, restricts abortion at 20 weeks. Passing the bill now throws Georgia into a stormy debate in this national election year over abortion limits. Most notably, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed into law this month a controversial bill requiring Virginia women to undergo an ultrasound procedure prior to having an abortion, although he backed off a mandate to require a trans-vaginal ultrasound.

The bill now heads back to the House, where the proposal could fail if an agreement is not reached by Thursday, when the General Assembly adjourns for the year.

To see more about the anti-abortion bills legislators in Georgia and several other states have been debating, check out our interactive map HERE.

– Fatima Najiy

NEWS FLASH

Watch: Two Gay Siblings Come Out To Their Catholic Latino Family | The Brave New Foundation’s Cuéntame presents the latest in its collection called “An Honest Conversation,” stories about LGBT Latino youth and their friends, families, and communities. This video features the Morenos, a fervently Catholic Latino family in Arizona in which both brother and sister faced the struggle of coming out as gay to their parents. In the end, they agree that despite its challenges, their coming out strengthened the family’s union, because “this is all we have, the family.” Watch it:

(HT: Towleroad.)

By Intern on Mar 27, 2012 at 12:30 pm

NEWS FLASH

52 Percent Of Marylanders Would Uphold Same-Sex Marriage Law | Fifty-two percent of respondents to a Maryland poll said they would “probably” or “definitely” vote in favor of the state’s recently-enacted same-sex marriage law should it appear on the ballot in November, while 44 percent of the 600 respondents said they would “probably” or “definintely” vote against it. The poll was commissioned by Marylanders for Marriage Equality and conducted by Public Policy Polling. Polls recently released by Gonzales and The Washington Post have reported the split in votes closer to 50-50. Opponents of the law are currently trying to collect the 56,000 signatures needed to put the law on the November ballot. — Fatima Najiy

By Guest Blogger on Mar 8, 2012 at 4:10 pm

NEWS FLASH

Support For Marriage Equality Grows, But Most Voters Don’t Care Where Candidates Stand On Issue | Forty-nine percent of Americans now back same-sex marriage, while only 40 percent oppose it, a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds. The numbers represent a huge shift from 2004, when 62 percent were against expanding marriage rights to gays and lesbians and just 30 percent backed marriage equality. This year’s results also found that 54 percent of voters don’t care where a candidate stands on the issue. Look:

LGBT

Poll Finds Unprecedented 25-Point Gap Between Supporters And Opponents Of Marriage Equality

By Igor Volsky on Feb 29, 2012 at 9:00 am

A 25-point gap now separates supporters and opponents of marriage equality in California, with 59 percent of residents backing same-sex marriage and just 34 percent opposing it, a new Field survey finds. This represents “the largest margin of support for the issue in the three-plus decades the Field Poll has been asking the question” and shows a big increase for marriage since voters approved Proposition 8 in 2008. Significantly, support increased among all groups, including Protestants, Catholics, African Americans, Latinos and older Americans and pollsters say that opponents of marriage would have a difficult time overcoming the trend should the measure go back to the ballot:

Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said the move to a 25-point gap goes beyond the gradual increase in support that has been expected as young voters age and “replace” older voters in the electorate. “This is now showing that opinions are changing irrespective of generational replacement,” DiCamillo said. “This is real change.” [...]

DiCamillo said voters still hold the judiciary in relatively high regard, and years of gay marriage court battles in California are likely contributing to the opinion shift. “The winds of change are blowing in other states (and) when judges start ruling the same way, I believe that has an influence,” he said.

Proposition 8 was found unconstitutional by a federal judge in San Francisco, “and his ruling was upheld by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month. But the appeals court is weighing a request from gay marriage opponents for a larger panel of judges to review the decision, and ultimately, the matter could be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, with a decision years away.”

Political scientists have suggested that conservative efforts to outlaw marriage equality may have actually contributed to its growing popularity by increasing the visibility of LGBT issues and making “a topic that seemed taboo a little bit less taboo.” “One of the fascinating things is that with all this discussion out there whether positive or negative, being able to say the words, just made people more comfortable,” Professor Brian Powell of Indiana University told ThinkProgress in 2010.

NEWS FLASH

POLL: Most Republicans Say Employers Should Provide Birth Control Coverage | A Quinnipiac Poll released today found that 71 percent of respondents, including 72 percent of independents and 50 percent of Republicans, said that health insurance plans should cover birth control as preventive care. Seventy-seven percent of Republicans said that it was not wrong for people to use contraception, compared to 16 percent who felt it was. Fifty-four percent of Americans also backed the Obama administration’s rule extending birth control to employees of religiously-affiliated institutions without additional co-pays, with 38 percent opposed. Fifty-six percent of women and independent voters approve of the rule, which now requires insurers to cover birth control if employers are opposed on religious grounds. — Zachary Bernstein

By Guest Blogger on Feb 23, 2012 at 10:15 am

NEWS FLASH

Catholic Voters Break With Church Over Contraception Coverage | Catholic voters are breaking with the Church’s opposition to insurance coverage of contraception, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds. Sixty-five percent of voters — including a majority of Catholics — “said they supported the Obama administration’s requirement that health insurance plans cover the cost of birth control, and 59 percent, said the health insurance plans of religiously affiliated employers should cover the cost of birth control.” A Public Policy Polling survey conducted on Friday similarly found that 57 percent of Catholic voters — and 59 percent of Catholic women — support the requirement. Under the administration’s policy, “women who work for institutions like Catholic hospitals and universities can obtain birth control from their insurance company without a co-pay, but their employers don’t have to include contraception in their healthcare plans.”

NEWS FLASH

NYT Poll: Most Catholics, Republicans Support Recognition Of Same-Sex Relationships | A new New York Times/CBS News poll confirms that Catholics and Republicans may be breaking away from their leadership’s opposition to recognizing gay and lesbian relationships. “More than two-thirds of Catholic voters supported some sort of legal recognition of gay couples’ relationships: 44 percent favored marriage, and 25 percent preferred civil unions. Twenty-four percent said gay couples should receive no legal recognition.” White Evangelicals were more conservative, however, with just 18 percent supporting marriage and 25 backing civil unions. But interestingly, the poll also found that 50 percent of self-identified Republicans support either marriage equality or civil unions. Forty-seven percent believe “there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.”

Security

Conflicting Poll Results Offer Insights Into U.S. Public Opinion On Iran Attack

By Eli Clifton on Feb 10, 2012 at 1:44 pm

A newly released poll by YouGov and YouGov-Cambridge led the Christian Science Monitor to report that “nearly half of Americans now say they would bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities to stop its uranium enrichment in order to halt its advances toward an ability to build a nuclear weapon.” Indeed, the poll found that 44 percent of Americans supported bombing Iran’s nuclear installations while only 35 percent opposed, a strikingly different result than a United Technologies/National Journal poll released last week which showed that only 17 percent of the U.S. public supported military action against Iran.

Why the discrepancy? An examination of the polling methodology reveals a very different set of questions between the two polls.

The YouGov poll asked respondents [PDF]:

Suppose a number of countries decided to take action against Iran in order to
stop Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon. Would you support or oppose your country’s Government taking part or assisting in each of the following?

Respondents were then asked whether they supported or opposed a number of actions including, but not limited to, air strikes. The question puts forth a situation in which a “number of countries” are acting multilaterally to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. This hinges on the hypothetical situation that Iran has decided to pursue a nuclear weapon — an assertion that neither the IAEA nor U.S. intelligence officials say there is enough evidence to definitely support — and a multilateral coalition coming together to conduct air strikes.

The United Technologies/National Journal poll released last week asked respondents:

As You May Know, Many In Congress And On The WH ’12 Campaign Trail Have Said That Iran Should Not Be Permitted To Produce A Nuclear Weapon. How Far Do You Think The U.S. Should Go To Prevent This?

This question poses no hypothetical scenarios about Iran pursuing a nuclear weapon or a multilateral effort to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The takeaway from the two contrasting poll results is that Americans are not unconditionally in favor of or opposed to military action against Iran. The IAEA and U.S. intelligence officials have expressed concerns about potential military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program but the YouGov polling question presumes a situation in which Iran is verifiably seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon. Details such as whether Iran must be stopped from constructing a nuclear weapon and the presence of a multilateral military campaign, are very important in determining American support for military action.

But the Christian Science Monitor’s headline, “Bomb Iran? Nearly half of Americans say ‘yes’ to halt nuclear program,” completely overlooks the complexity of the polling questions and the YouGov poll’s revealing insights into American thinking on military action against Iran.

Health

Poll: Affordable Care Act Gaining Wider Acceptance

By Guest Blogger on Jan 30, 2012 at 3:55 pm

A new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll found that support for certain components of President Obama’s health reform law seems to be slowly increasing with time. According to the report, the percentage of Americans polled who are in support of the law’s provision preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions has jumped to 71 percent from just 64 percent at the end of 2010.

Other provisions of the ACA that are gaining acceptance since November 2010: creating insurance exchanges where people can shop for insurance is up to 59 percent from 51 percent; requiring research to measure the effectiveness of different treatments is now at 53 percent from 44 percent; and providing tax credits to small businesses to help pay for their employees’ insurance is now up 70 percent versus 60 percent.

– Fatima Najiy

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