Many of our colleagues, friends and supporters fought hard for health insurance reform both locally and at the national level. We watched the ups and downs of this process and wondered if there would ever be a final product. It has actually, finally happened. We’ve taken the initiative to thank our legislators for getting this done. We know that there will be work to be done to tweak this legislation in the future, but this is a momentous event and a real beginning for health care coverage for all.
We’d like to thank all the colleagues, advocates, friends and supporters who cared about and worked for a positive outcome for women and families. Our friends at Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need put out two fact sheets this week detailing the pros and cons of the new health insurance reform. We like their fact sheets and include them here for our visitors to access.
The Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need bulletin stated, “After the hard fought debates about health reform, there’s a lot of misinformation about the legislation out there. “ We want to do our part in promoting the facts about health insurance reform.
Family Planning Health Services Administration and Staff
This morning, the Kentucky Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of Cochran v. Commonwealth, a case that could have enormous consequences for healthy moms and babies in that state.
Ms. Cochran’s road to Kentucky’s Supreme Court has been a long one. Almost four years ago, Ms. Cochran gave birth to a baby girl. Her daughter allegedly tested positive for cocaine, and for that alone, Ms. Cochran was charged with felony child abuse. However, before her case could go to trial, the court dismissed the prosecution. The court was right: Ms. Cochran never should have been charged. In 1993, in Commonwealth v. Welch(the ACLU represented Ms. Welch in that case), the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that Kentucky’s criminal laws could not be used to punish women who become and choose to remain pregnant despite a substance abuse problem.
You might think that the court’s dismissal of her case would have been the end of Ms. Cochran’s ordeal; unfortunately it was not. The state appealed, arguing that in later cases the Kentucky Supreme Court had actually reversed itself, even though it could point to no explicit language where the court had done so. Surprisingly, the appeals court agreed (though not one of the three judges on that court agreed for the same reason). With the law now totally in flux, the state Supreme Court accepted the case to settle the issue — again — of whether becoming and remaining pregnant is ever a crime in the state of Kentucky.
The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Ms. Cochran, not only because we believe Welchis still good law, but, more fundamentally, because using criminal laws to punish pregnant women who are struggling with addiction makes for bad law and even worse public policy. If a pregnant woman can be charged with a crime for potentially harming her fetus, then literally everything she does or does not do — including choosing to continue her pregnancy to term despite an underlying health condition — could land her in jail. What if a pregnant woman has a glass of wine with dinner now and then, or lives with a smoker; what if she drives over the speed limit, fails to get regular pre-natal care, or works in a coal mine, as many women in Kentucky do?
Allowing the government to exercise such unlimited control over women’s bodies, and every aspect of their lives, would essentially reduce pregnant women to second-class citizens, denying them the basic constitutional rights enjoyed by the rest of us.
Moreover, from a public health perspective, these prosecutions are simply counterproductive. Fifty-nine organizations and experts, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Kentucky Psychiatric Medical Association, joined friend-of-the-court briefs in this case, explaining that punitive approaches to improving fetal health just don’t work. Seems obvious, right? By forcing doctors to turn in their own patients, these prosecutions only drive women away from the health care and treatment they need. If the state of Kentucky was truly interested in supporting healthy moms and babies, these groups point out, it would not be violating its own laws to throw the pregnant women who need health care the most in jail.
We are hopeful that the Kentucky Supreme Court will agree and uphold nearly two decades of sound law and policy in the state of Kentucky. Indeed, the court’s decision will have ramifications beyond Ms. Cochran’s case. At least two other women have been charged with similar “crimes” since Ms. Cochran’s arrest. Our efforts should be focused on ensuring that pregnant women with underlying health conditions can get the care they need. Hopefully, this case will set us squarely on that path.
If you or someone you know has been prosecuted or threatened with prosecution for allegedly harming their fetus, please contact us. Any information you provide will be treated as confidential. You can email rfp@aclu.org or send a letter to the Reproductive Freedom Project at 125 Broad Street, 18th floor, NY, NY 10004. For more information about the ACLU’s work on pregnancy prosecutions and other reproductive freedom issues, please visit http://www.aclu.org/.
Today I spoke to Alexa Kolbi-Molinas from the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project regarding Cochran V. Kentucky. The case of Ina Cochran, and her pregnancy prosecution.
If anyone listening has been prosecuted or threatened with prosecution, or knows anyone who has been prosecuted or threatened with prosecution, for allegedly harming their fetus, they should definitely get in contact with Alexa and the folks at the ACLU. You can email rfp@aclu.org or send a letter to the Reproductive Freedom Project at 125 Broad Street, 18th floor, NY, NY 10004. For more information about the ACLU’s work on pregnancy prosecutions and other reproductive freedom issues, please visit www.aclu.org.
Campus health centers and family planning clinics are celebrating a legislative victory that will make prescription contraceptives more affordable. Yesterday, President Obama signed the Omnibus Spending Bill which repairs an error created three years ago when Congress passed language that made it difficult for drug companies to offer reduced prices for contraceptives to college health centers and many family planning clinics that provide birth control to uninsured and underinsured populations. The repair allows drug companies to sell contraceptives to safety-net and campus health centers at reduced cost. The change does not force them to do so. The pharmaceutical company’s option to reduce pricing is discretionary and there is no cost to tax payers.
As we enter the winter of 2008, we are all met with this idea of change: this literal branding of ‘change’ as a concept, as a marketing tool, as a thing that can be sold and bought and supported and the rest. Change is good, change is within you, and change is something we all support, and everyone likes to keep it fresh. We at Below The Waist like to keep it fresh.
In an act of keeping it fresh, we once again look to you. Over the last several months, many of you came together to change the course of our nation. We ask now, that you bring that change of yours to us. We are calling for submissions to Below The Waist. Now, more than ever, we need you to be involved in this discussion.
More and more as the winter comes, and goes (or as in the case of those of us in Wisconsin, winter comes and stays, and stays, and stays); we will look to you as our partners and valuable resources. Share your voice with us. Whether you have a voice for change, for action on reproductive rights, a voice for reproductive justice or everything above, share your call with us.
Over the next week or so we will to expand our footprint with things like facebook, twitter, etc. We hope to offer you something interesting and engaging. We hope to offer you a space for change. A space where you can learn and contribute; a space where you can listen and be heard.
In this same time, you can look forward to a few posts about out seeking to create online audio libraries about some specific issues. We have a chance with the tools of the internet, like our podcast, to collect and offer these stories up as tools to create and to inform CHANGE.
So, as you can see, it all comes down to change, creating change, embracing change, being the change you seek, all of these things are part of change, and we hope you get involved with Below The Waist.
This week, Executive Director Lon Newman and Director of Nursing Ellen Butts discuss the recent article in the Wall Street Journal that said adverse effects are not linked to Gardasil. The article was published on October 23, 2008, and was authored by Jennifer Corbett Dooren.
“Based on all of the information we have today, CDC and FDA have determined that the HPV vaccine is safe to use and effective in preventing 4 types of HPV,” the CDC said.
This is in direct opposition to the claims made by opponents of the vaccine.
