Posts Tagged ‘ President Obama ’

STOP YELLING AT THE TV AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

I’ve decided to stop yelling at the television and walk the walk.   Sunday I’m packing up my car and driving to Cleveland, Ohio for the next 13 days to help turn out Democratic Women Voters.  After the 10 hour drive, I’ll be living with a host family and working with my fabulous friend, Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner (a regular on MSNBC) for the Ohio Obama Presidential Campaign.  I’m excited and can’t wait to hit the ground in THE MOST CRUCIAL battleground state in the country.  Follow my adventure on Facebook and Twitter: StaceyNewman.

St. Louis State Reps. Stacey Newman & Tracy McCreery and Columbia State Rep. Stephen Webber Door Knock for Mary Still for Senate in Columbia Sun. Oct 21.

Will you stop yelling at the Television too the next 13 days?

1.  Keep Claire McCaskill in the U.S. Senate. Seriously,  can you live with Senator Todd Akin???  CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR CLOSEST FIELD OFFICE TO HELP.

2.  Help Re-Elect President Barack Obama in Missouri. CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR OBAMA CLOSEST OBAMA CAMPAIGN OFFICE. 

3.  Two progressive fellow State Reps. running for State Senate who are on fire and CAN boot out GOP incumbents: SCOTT SIFTON FOR STATE SENATE  – St. Louis  and MARY STILL FOR STATE SENATE - Columbia

4.  Find other Progressive Candidates Near You.  CLICK HERE.

War on Women Wounds GOP

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

President Barack Obama shakes hands with supporters after a speech at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida on April 10, 2012., Kevin Lamarque, Reuters / Landov

By Kirsten Powers, The Daily Beast — April 18

Unmarried women are coming back to the Democrats after their 2010 fling with Republicans.

The Republican casualties in the “War on Women” are mounting. According to a new Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund battleground poll, the current GOP agenda is sending unmarried women back into to the arms of Congressional Democrats.

Previous polling has shown President Obama gaining significantly among women, but Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg and women’s voting expert Page Gardner, who conducted the poll, say this is the first survey to show similar gains at the congressional level. Bottom line: in the entire battleground represented in this survey, including both Republican and Democratic districts, Democrats hold a 51 to 41 lead over Republicans among women.

In 2010, Republicans won the women’s vote for the first time in 30 years. Many of the women who had voted for Obama stayed home because they were so unhappy with the economy. According to the pollsters, married women (who typically vote Republican) have seen almost no rise in unemployment, while unmarried women (core Democratic voters) have been losing jobs at the same rate as men. This caused unmarried women—who comprise 25 percent of eligible voters—to turn from Obama in 2010.

While Democrats had previously worried that 2012 could be a repeat of the midterm elections in terms of women, those fears are receding.

The poll found Democrats making significant gains among women in districts held by Republican incumbents. They report: “In the Republican-held districts where we have data from last year, Democrats picked up a net 10 points among women since December and now lead by 4 points. Among unmarried women, Democrats lead by 20 points in Republican held districts.” Page Gardner said in an interview, “Unmarried women don’t like the GOP economic arguments and they don’t agree with what is happening in terms of argument about birth control.”

President Obama should send embossed thank you notes to the GOP leadership and, of course, Rush Limbaugh. “Do not underestimate the power of what is happening on this contraception issue,” said Greenberg in a conference call with reporters. “Contraception is a Terri Schiavo moment; there is a sense of government intrusiveness.”

Unforced errors by Republicans certainly help the Dems, but a strong economic argument is what will close the deal with these ladies.

Read more here.

Poll: Majority of Catholics Support Contraception Coverage

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

By Jonathan Easley - TheHill.com

A majority of Catholics believe their employers should be required to provide coverage for contraception and birth control, according to a poll released Tuesday from the nonprofit research organization the Public Religion Research Institute.

The poll found that a solid majority of Catholics, 58 percent, say contraception and birth control should be a required, no-cost benefit under their company’s healthcare plan.

The president has been hammered in recent days by leaders in the Catholic Church, as well as his Republican rivals, for the administration’s decision to force employers, including religious institutions, to provide health insurance coverage for contraception.

At a Monday press conference, press secretary Jay Carney said churches and houses of worship would be exempt, and that some aspects, such as a possible “rider,” could still be included in the final plan.

Hospitals and charities run by the Catholic Church, however, would not be eligible for an exemption.

The PRRI poll shows broad support for employer-provided healthcare coverage for contraception and birth control, with 55 percent of all Americans saying they support the idea.

Sixty-one percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans, 73 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of political independents, 65 percent of young voters, 50 percent of white mainline Protestants and 62 percent of women were in favor of employer-provided healthcare coverage for contraception and birth control.

Only white evangelicals, at 38 percent, and men, at 47 percent, did not show majority support.

When it comes to the specific policy regarding whether religiously affiliated hospitals and colleges should have to provide that coverage, a majority of all Catholics, 52 percent, favored requiring that birth control be included in insurance.

But among Catholic voters, only 45 percent are in favor of requiring that organizations affiliated with churches be required to provide the coverage. Support from all voters falls to 49 percent.

The PRRI poll of 1,009 U.S. adults was conducted Feb. 1-5 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Click here to view the entire article.

Obama Administration Guarantees Near-Universal Contraceptive Coverage

Friday, January 20th, 2012

image via ThinkProgress

Fantastic news today: the Obama Administration has ensured that most all employers will have to offer insurance plans that cover birth control!

Per the news release from the US Dept. of Health and Human Services: “the final rule on preventive health services will ensure that women with health insurance coverage will have access to the full range of the Institute of Medicine’s recommended preventive services, including all FDA-approved forms of contraception.” [emphasis mine]

Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at American Progress, guest blogging for ThinkProgress:

Today, in a huge victory for women’s health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. This means that after years of trying to get birth control covered to the same extent that health plans cover Viagra, our country will finally have nearly universal coverage of contraception.

Opponents of contraception had lobbied hard for a broad exemption that would have allowed any religiously affiliated employer to opt out of providing such coverage. Fortunately, the Obama administration rejected that push and decided to maintain the narrow religious exemption that it initially proposed. Only houses of worship and other religious nonprofits that primarily employ and serve people of the same faith will be exempt.

…Family planning results in better health outcomes for women and their children—a woman who has a planned pregnancy is more likely to be in better health when she gets pregnant and more likely to seek prenatal care, and children who are born at least two years apart are healthier. Family planning is also the most effective tool we have in reducing unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion. [emphasis mine]

It is terrific to get some good news on women’s reproductive rights from this administration. Thank you, President Obama & Secretary Sebelius.

The full statement on the decision from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is here.

Planned Parenthood has petition so you can thank President Obama for standing up for women’s health.

Kathleen Sebelius Pressed On Plan B Decision By 14 Democratic Senators

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

courtesy of drpinna.com

by Amanda Terkel, Huffington Post

Fourteen Democratic senators, led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), sent the Obama administration a letter  on Tuesday asking for the scientific basis behind its decision to limit access to emergency contraception.

Last week, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rejected  the Food and Drug Administration’s conclusion that the Plan B One-Step pill was safe enough to be placed on pharmacy shelves without an age limit. The decision raised eyebrows because HHS has never before overruled the FDA on a drug recommendation. Many reproductive rights groups openly questioned whether the Obama administration was putting electoral politics above sound science ahead of next year’s election.

“We are writing to express our disappointment with your December 7, 2011 decision to block the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recommendation to make Plan B One-Step available over-the-counter,” wrote the senators in their letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “We feel strongly that FDA regulations should be based on science. We write to you today to ask that you provide us with the rationale for this decision.”

The senators asked Sebelius to share the “specific rationale and the scientific data” she relied upon when overruling FDA experts.

“On behalf of the millions of women we represent, we want to be assured that this and future decisions affecting women’s health will be based on medical and scientific evidence,” they concluded.

Besides Murray, the Senate Demorats who signed the letter were Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), Carl Levin (Mich.), John Kerry (Mass.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Al Franken (Minn.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also signed on.

HHS did not return a request for comment on the letter.

Sebelius has stated that she rejected the FDA’s conclusion because she believed the pill’s effect  on girls in the 11-12 age range needed to be studied further.

Yet as Susan Wood, a former FDA official who resigned in 2005 to protest what she saw as the Bush administration’s politicization of Plan B, has noted, “[T]his type of age restriction, and worries about the use of medicines by teenagers, have not been applied to other products . Apparently there is no problem in allowing younger teens to purchase products such as acetaminophen, and others with known and serious risks, over the counter.”

Murray has been a leading voice on Plan B access in the Senate. In 2005, she and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) announced they were blocking the nomination of Lester Crawford, President George W. Bush’s choice to head the FDA, until the agency made a decision about whether to make Plan B available over the counter without a prescription.

Obama’s Woman Problem

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

Credit - The Washington Times

This past week HHS Director Kathleen Sebelius disagreed with the FDA’s decision – as did President Obama –  to approve over-the-counter emergency contraception (Plan B) for girls under 17.

“The president shamefully uses his daughters to justify limiting the healthcare options of America’s young women”

by Rebecca Traister – Salon.com   

When will Barack Obama learn how to talk thoughtfully about women, women’s health and women’s rights?  Apparently, not today.

On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius unexpectedly overruled  the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation that emergency contraception be sold on drugstore shelves and made available without a prescription to women under the age of 17. The move came as a surprise blow to healthcare and women’s rights activists, the kinds of people regularly counted as supporters of the Obama administration.

Today, Obama doubled down  on his disregard for the concerns of these groups, claiming that while Sebelius made her decision without his counsel, he agreed with it. Obama pooh-poohed the findings of the FDA, which had concluded that Plan B pills posed no medical hazard and supported Sebelius’ official argument, citing a lack of confidence that “a 10-year-old or 11-year-old going to a drugstore would be able to, alongside bubble gum or batteries, be able to buy a medication that potentially if not used properly can have an adverse effect.”

The logic expressed today by the president, and yesterday by Sebelius, is ludicrous: Medicines like Tylenol – which have been proven to have adverse effects in high doses – are available by the truckload on drugstore shelves, at prices far cheaper than the $30 to $50 it would cost a preteen to purchase just one dose of Plan B, let alone go wild with it.

Read more here.

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