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IOM Recommends Full Coverage of Contraceptives, Other Reproductive Health Care Under Health Reform

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:35:00 +0000

In a new--and much-anticipated--report, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is recommending that health reform guidelines for preventive care to be developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) include a full range of reproductive health services, including all methods of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) without a co-pay. In developing these and other recommendations for women's preventive health care, the IOM took into account the recommendations of medical bodies and of peer-reviewed studies demonstrating important health needs and outcomes.

Apart from coverage of contraceptive supplies, the IOM also breaks new ground with recommendations on inclusion of screening for gender-based and domestic violence, education, testing, and counseling for sexually transmitted infections, and inclusion of other essentials to a broader package of "well-woman" care as part of basic insurance coverage.

In total, the IOM report recommends inclusion of eight preventive health services for women at no cost under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The ACA requires plans to cover the services listed in HHS's comprehensive list of preventive services. At the agency's request, an IOM committee identified critical gaps in preventive services for women as well as measures that will further ensure women's health and well-being.

HHS has set its own self-imposed deadline of August 2nd for release of these final guidelines.

Birth Control Without Copays Could Become Mandatory

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:34:00 +0000

The Institute of Medicine is expected to make its recommendations about preventative health care services for women that will be included in the Affordable Care Act, and birth control without copays is service that is drawing a lot of attention.

Is there nothing in last year's Affordable Care Act that people won't fight over?

The latest battle is set to come to a head Wednesday, when the independent Institute of Medicine is expected to make recommendations about preventive health care services for women. And one service that's drawing a lot of the attentions is contraception.

Depending on the group's recommendation, contraception could become part of a package of preventive benefits that every health plan would have to cover without patient cost-sharing. In other words, it would become effectively free.

States Enact Record Number of Abortion Restrictions in First Half of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:32:00 +0000

Using a mix of old a new strategies, 19 states have enacted 162 new laws related to reproductive rights and health in the first six months of 2011. More are currently in the pipeline.

In the first six months of 2011, states enacted 162 new provisions related to reproductive health and rights. Fully 49% of these new laws seek to restrict access to abortion services, a sharp increase from 2010, when 26% of new laws restricted abortion. The 80 abortion restrictions enacted this year are more than double the previous record of 34 abortion restrictions enacted in 2005—and more than triple the 23 enacted in 2010. All of these new provisions were enacted in just 19 states.

Dan Shapiro sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Israel

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:34:00 +0000

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swore in Dan Shapiro as the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel on Friday, in a ceremony at the State Department.

Shapiro was until recently the director of the Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council. Before that he acted as U.S. President Barack Obama's adviser on the Middle East and Jewish community relations during Obama’s presidential campaign.

At the ceremony, Clinton said she has every confidence in Shapiro’s ability to represent the country and the Obama Administration, and to help them "write a new chapter in the enduring partnership between United States and Israel.”

House warns P.A. on statehood moves

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:23:00 +0000

In a bi-partisan resolution sponsored by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the US House of Representatives echoed a similar resolution by the Senate urging the Palestinian Authority to not bypass direct negotiations with Israel. The resolution warned of potential serious implications for US-Palestinian relations should they continue to pursue recognition of statehood via the UN as opposed to direct talks.

The U.S. House of Representatives threatened to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority if it pursues recognition of statehood outside of negotiations with Israel.

A resolution passed Thursday night by a vote of 406 to 6 "affirms that Palestinian efforts to circumvent direct negotiations and pursue recognition of statehood prior to agreement with Israel will harm United States-Palestinian relations and will have serious implications for the United States assistance programs for the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority."

The non-binding resolution is similar to one passed last month by the Senate.

Abortion Wars: Taking It To The States

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:57:00 +0000

Elections do matter, individual votes do make a difference. This has become more apparent regarding reproductive rights in the last year than ever before.

The nation's abortion wars, simmering but largely quiet in recent years, have begun boiling again.

Nowhere has the battle been more pitched than in Kansas, where the Legislature this session passed four anti-abortion measures and attempted to adopt strict new licensing rules that this week came within hours of closing down the state's last abortion provider.

Late Thursday, Kansas officials agreed to license Planned Parenthood's Overland Park surgical facility, which provides abortions, after the organization scrambled to comply with the week-old clinic rules by Friday's deadline. That deadline was annulled Friday when a federal judge blocked the new licensing laws.

Editorial: Palestinian Stunts Undermine Peace Efforts

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:31:00 +0000

A recent editorial in the Near East Report looks at what the Palestinian Authority has been doing to progress potential peace talks.

Over the past few months, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been waging a campaign that has nothing to do with peacemaking. Instead, the PA is trying to isolate the Jewish state in the international arena. This campaign consists of a number of stunts that make a peace agreement less likely.

First, the PA has persisted in its refusal to engage in direct negotiations with Israel. If the PA wanted to make peace with Israel, it would talk to Israel, at a minimum. Despite PA President Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to sit down for face-to-face talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken far-reaching steps to demonstrate his commitment to negotiations. In the past two years, he has announced his support for a Palestinian state alongside Israel multiple times and reduced barriers to movement in the West Bank. Netanyahu also implemented a 10-month freeze on housing construction in the West Bank, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded as "unprecedented."

It's not just that Abbas refuses to talk. He has led an international campaign to bypass negotiations by winning support for U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state. These efforts focus on seeking a U.N. Security Council vote in September recommending that the U.N. General Assembly recognize Palestinian statehood and admit the Palestinian state as a full U.N. member state. In case the United States vetoes the motion at the Security Council, Abbas plans to seek General Assembly recognition of Palestinian statehood without full U.N. membership. (Under the U.N. charter, admission to full U.N. membership requires a Security Council recommendation prior to General Assembly approval.)

Judge Blocks South Dakota's Abortion Counseling Law

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Yesterday a federal judge blocked a South Dakota law scheduled to go into effect July 1st. This law would have required women wait 72 hours after seeing a doctor to have an abortion, and require them to seek counseling from an anti-choice crisis pregnancy center prior to the procedure.

On Thursday, a federal judge blocked a South Dakota measure that would have forced women to visit a counseling center and wait 72 hours before obtaining an abortion.

The law, set to take effect on Friday, required women to visit a so-called "crisis pregnancy center"—which are often run by religious and anti-abortion groups—before having an abortion. It also imposed the longest mandatory waiting period in the country. Judge Karen Schreier of the US District Court in South Dakota granted a preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, ruling that the law is likely be found unconstitutional.

The law inspired outrage from abortion rights advocates, who note that crisis pregnancy centers are unregulated, frequently staffed by unqualified volunteers, have been found to provide false information, and often exist for the sole purpose of discouraging women from going forward with an abortion. The text of the law passed in South Dakota didn't really hide that goal, stating that the aim of the measure was to help women "maintain and keep their relationship with their unborn children."

Oren presents Israel’s priorities for talks

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:26:00 +0000

During a conference call this week to Jewish leaders, Ambassador Michael Oren provided an overview of Israel's priorities and goals in framing a resumption of peace talks.

Israel's U.S. ambassador, Michael Oren, outlined for Jewish leaders his country's list of priorities in framing peace talks with the Palestinians.

Oren, speaking Thursday in a conference call, said Israel is looking into President Obama's recent proposals for renewing talks. Such talks, Oren said, should be framed by what he called the "terms of reference": the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; no return of Palestinian refugees; and a long-term military presence for Israel along the Jordan-West Bank border. Also, that an agreement would end all claims.

"Our negotiation teams together with the American negotiation teams are trying to find a viable frame work that we can agree on for renewing the negotiation," Oren said.

Remarks By President Peres On American Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:15:00 +0000

Israeli President Shimon Peres' remarks at the US Embassy's 4th of July Celebration in Tel Aviv.

There are more than two hundred and thirty five different things I can say about the wonder, the grandeur, the accomplishment and the spirit that is AMERICA - the powerful nation and generous giver.

It is the history of a mighty – nay, the mightiest – country that never occupied but always contributed.

America is the great nation that was always sensitive to the grim. To the dire. To the impoverished. And made the world a less dangerous one.

Ready to overcome its flaws.

Some criticize the United States. All of us know that a world without the U.S. would be the greatest mistake of all.

For all of us.

Kansas abortion ban starts tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:04:00 +0000

Kansas has passed the strictest abortion licensing regulations in the country and is poised to ban abortion across the state. A lawsuit has been filed to block the regulations.

It looks like Republicans in Kansas are going to succeed in shutting down abortion in that state via red tape -- at least temporarily -- starting tomorrow when the state's new licensing regulations for abortion clinics take effect. So far, none of the the state's three remaining clinics has been approved for a license.

A clinic run by Planned Parenthood is the only one that was inspected under the new rules. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri President Peter Brownlie tells us they haven't been told yet whether they'll be licensed.

A second abortion provider has sued to block the regulations and the third has sought to join the case. But the first hearing in that lawsuit isn't scheduled until tomorrow afternoon -- and the law kicks in tomorrow. So all three providers tell us they've decided not to schedule abortions procedure tomorrow for risk of running afoul of the new law.

Read and hear more at Maddow Blog

Several States Forbid Abortion After 20 Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:02:00 +0000

In the past year, six states have passed laws banning abortion after 20 weeks of gestation based on the heavily disputed theory that a fetus can feel pain at that point, and other states are looking at similar legislation.

Dozens of new restrictions passed by states this year have chipped away at the right to abortion by requiring women to view ultrasounds, imposing waiting periods or cutting funds for clinics. But a new kind of law has gone beyond such restrictions, striking at the foundation of the abortion rules set out by the Supreme Court over the last four decades.

These laws, passed in six states in little more than a year, ban abortions at the 20th week after conception, based on the theory that the fetus can feel pain at that point — a notion disputed by mainstream medical organizations in the United States and Britain. Opponents of abortion say they expect that discussion of fetal pain — even in the face of scientific criticism — will alter public perception of abortion, and they have made support for the new laws a litmus test for Republicans seeking the presidency.

“The purpose of this type of bill is to focus on the humanity of the unborn child,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee. “Fetal pain is something that people who are in the middle on the abortion issue can relate to.”

Here comes another lost tribe

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:09:00 +0000

Later this month, the Knesset will vote on a resolution to bring the remaining 7,000 members of B'nei Menashe, one of the lost tribes who settled in India, back to Israel. Close to 1,700 members of this community have already made aliyah.

Thousands of kilometers to the east, in the furthest reaches of northeastern India, a long-lost community continues to nourish its age-old dream of returning to its ancient homeland, the land of Israel.

The Bnei Menashe, or “sons of Manasseh,” are descendants of one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, which were exiled by the Assyrian empire more than 27 centuries ago. The community, which numbers 7,232 people, resides primarily in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh.

Despite generations of wandering, the Bnei Menashe never forgot who they were, where they had come from, or where they aspired to return.

What Has Gilad Shalit Missed and What Have We Experienced?

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:57:00 +0000

Today is the 5th anniversary of the capture of Gilad Shalit, a 19 year-old Israeli soldier at the time of his capture. A lot has happened in five years, but his release is not one of them.

In 2006, Facebook had just 10 million users, Justin Bieber was 11, and Gilad Shalit was free.

On June 25, 2006, Hamas terrorists captured Gilad Shalit, an Israeli corporal, in a cross border raid. He has remained captive since.

A lot can happen in five years.

Op-Ed: Obama’s path paves the way for a secure Israel

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:19:00 +0000

Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat who has served in several presidential administrations, recently wrote an op-ed stating President Obama's support for Israel and his goals "provide the key to a safe and secure Jewish state."

A strong secure Jewish state of Israel, supported by the United States as a close ally, has been a central feature of my public and private careers.

As a senior government official in several administrations, an American and a Jew, I see Israel from multiple perspectives. Israel plays a strategic role in advancing American interests in the Middle East and beyond; Israel and the United States share a common set of democratic values and have developed a partnership unique in the annals of history. Israel is the Third Jewish Commonwealth, returning the Jewish people to their homeland after 2,000 years of exile, and it is the home of relatives and close friends, and the final resting place of my great-grandfather and grandfather, both of whom made aliyah.

I fervently believe President Obama’s course is essential to achieve the hopes I have for Israel’s future in the 21st century and beyond -- notwithstanding the recent controversy over the president’s remarks about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and differences over Israeli settlement expansion.

Obama: Israel-United States Bond Is 'Unbreakable'

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:21:00 +0000

President Obama reiterated his unwavering support for Israel and his pursuit of peace in the Middle East this week.

Seeking to reassure Jewish donors amid questions over his support for Israel, President Barack Obama pledged Monday that his administration would "devote all of its creative powers" to trying to bring about Mideast peace.

Obama made the comments at a high-dollar fundraiser at a Washington hotel hosted by Americans in Support of a Strong U.S.-Israel Relationship.

The appearance came a month after he clashed publicly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the road to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. That handed ammunition to Republican presidential hopefuls who accused Obama of insufficient support for Israel.

What If Jews Had Followed the Palestinian Path?

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:18:00 +0000

An interesting perspective on what the world would look like if Israel had not been created and instead the survivors of the Holocaust had taken a different path.

It is doubtful that there has ever been a more miserable human refuse than Jewish survivors after World War II. Starving, emaciated, stateless—they were not welcomed back by countries where they had lived for generations as assimilated and educated citizens. Germany was no place to return to and in Kielce, Poland, 40 Jews who survived the Holocaust were killed in a pogrom one year after the war ended. The European Jew, circa 1945, quickly went from victim to international refugee disaster.

Yet within a very brief time, this epic calamity disappeared, so much so that few people today even remember the period. How did this happen in an era when Palestinian refugees have continued to be stateless for generations?

In 1945, there were hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors living in DP Camps (displaced persons) across Europe. They were fed and clothed by Jewish and international relief organizations. Had the world's Jewish population played this situation as the Arabs and Palestinians have, everything would look very different today.

Saving the Yale anti-Semitism institute

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Yale just killed the country’s best institute for the study of anti-Semitism. If Yale doesn’t want it, Washington should grab the institute before it goes anywhere else.

For the past five years, the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism has flourished in New Haven, Conn. On a small budget it has sponsored research, visiting fellowships, papers and presentations on the most abiding and lethal hatred mankind has ever known — the one that brought us the Holocaust and that is once again racing around the world.

A few institutes for the study of anti-Semitism have sprung up globally — a couple in Israel and some in Europe and North America. Yale’s is the first in the States and the first to be closed down.

Hamas rejects Fayyad for Palestinian prime minister

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:19:00 +0000

Since signing a reconciliation accord more than a month ago, the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have made only slow progress in carrying it out, and on Sunday the pact hit its first significant snag with a public disagreement over who should be prime minister of a joint government.

The dispute over Fatah’s nomination Saturday of Salam Fayyad, a political independent who is the Palestinian Authority premier, cast a shadow over planned talks in Cairo on Tuesday on the composition of the new cabinet.

The candidacy of Fayyad is key to whether a unified Palestinian government will continue to have the Western backing that the Palestinian Authority has received during his term in office. The U.S.-educated economist is respected by foreign donors and has been credited internationally with revamping Palestinian finances and building government institutions necessary for statehood.

Remembering Six Days in 1967

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:58:00 +0000

Ambassador Michael Oren reviews the history and lessons of the 1967 Six Day War on its anniversary.

"We shall destroy Israel and its inhabitants," declared Palestine Liberation Organization leader Ahmad al-Shuqayri. "As for the survivors -- if there are any -- the boats are ready to deport them." A half-million Arab soldiers and more than 5,000 tanks converged on Israel from every direction, including the West Bank, then part of Jordan. Their plans called for obliterating Israel's army, conquering the country, and killing large numbers of civilians. Iraqi President Abdul Rahman Arif said the Arab goal was to wipe Israel off the map: "We shall, God willing, meet in Tel Aviv and Haifa."

This was the fate awaiting Israel on June 4, 1967. Many Israelis feverishly dug trenches and filled sandbags, while others secretly dug 10,000 graves for the presumed victims. Some 14,000 hospital beds were arranged and gas masks distributed to the civilian population. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike to neutralize Egypt, the most powerful Arab state, but the threat of invasion by other Arab armies remained.

Israel's borders at the time were demarcated by the armistice lines established at the end of Israel's war of independence 18 years earlier. These lines left Israel a mere 9 miles wide at its most populous area. Israelis faced mountains to the east and the sea to their backs and, in West Jerusalem, were virtually surrounded by hostile forces. In 1948, Arab troops nearly cut the country in half at its narrow waist and laid siege to Jerusalem, depriving 100,000 Jews of food and water.

White House trying to restart Mideast peace talks based on Obama guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:54:00 +0000

Israeli and Palestinian representatives have been holding separate talks in Washington, as part of an American effort to restart direct negotiations and thereby forestall a Palestinian bid to obtain unilateral UN recognition as a state in September, according to a source at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

Senior American officials met with each side separately in the White House or the State Department, the source said.

Israel is being represented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special envoy, Isaac Molho. The Palestinians sent Saeb Erekat, their former chief negotiator, and Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman.

Obama’s commitment to Israel

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:29:00 +0000

Rahm Emanuel, former Chief of Staff to President Obama and newly-elected mayor of Chicago, discusses the President's commitment to the pursuit of peace in the Middle East.

Days into my tenure as mayor of Chicago, with my focus on keeping our city’s streets safe, our schools strong and our finances stabilized, I expected my attention to be in the Midwest, not in the Middle East. But as an American and the son of an Israeli immigrant, I have a deep, abiding commitment to the survival, security and success of the state of Israel.

I am among the many who know that the Israeli people yearn for peace. They have taken risks for peace in spite of dangers. They will again, when they have a viable partner in the process and a region that recognizes a Jewish state of Israel with secure and defensible borders.

President Obama, like every student of the Middle East, understands that the shifting sands of demography in that volatile region are working against the two-state solution needed to end generations of bloodshed. The fragile stasis that exists today cannot hold.

US administration says it will boycott UN world racism conference because of anti-Semitism

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:23:00 +0000

The United States will boycott the third "Durban" conference which marks the 10th anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism originally held in Durban, South Africa due to continuing displays of anti-semitism and anti-Israel sentiment.

The Obama administration said Wednesday it will boycott a world conference against racism being held at U.N. headquarters in September because of concerns about anti-Semitism.

The U.N. summit marks the 10-year commemoration of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism that was held in the South African city of Durban. The U.S. and Israel walked out of that meeting over a draft resolution that criticized Israel and equated Zionism with racism.

The United States will not participate in the upcoming conference because the Durban process “included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism,” Joseph E. Macmanus, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Marshfield man who allegedly came to kill abortion doctor ordered held in custody

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:39:00 +0000

This week marks the second anniversary of the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Yesterday a Wisconsin man was arrested and admitted to planning to kill the doctor at a Madison Planned Parenthood.

The Marshfield man who drove to Madison allegedly to kill an abortion doctor was ordered held in custody Friday as federal prosecutors considered new charges against him.

Ralph Lang, 63, faces a misdemeanor federal charge of attempting to injure, intimidate and interfere with people providing reproductive health services, according to a criminal complaint.

But U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said prosecutors, working with the Department of Justice's civil rights division in Washington, are considering seeking a felony charge against Lang alleging that he interfered with a person's use of a program that receives federal funds.

Speech by PM Netanyahu to a Joint Meeting of the U.S. Congress

noreply@blogger.com (JAC) — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:05:00 +0000

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress this week. Below is the transcript of his speech.

I am deeply moved by your warm welcome. And I am deeply honored that you have given me the opportunity to address Congress a second time.

Mr. Vice President, do you remember the time that we were the new kids in town?

And I do see a lot of old friends here. And I see a lot of new friends of Israel here. Democrats and Republicans alike.

Israel has no better friend than America. And America has no better friend than Israel. We stand together to defend democracy. We stand together to advance peace. We stand together to fight terrorism.   Congratulations America, Congratulations, Mr. President. You got bin Laden. Good riddance!

In an unstable Middle East, Israel is the one anchor of stability.   In a region of shifting alliances, Israel is America’s unwavering ally. Israel has always been pro-American.   Israel will always be pro-American.

Read more at The Office of The Prime Minister
Watch the speech at C-SPAN