Reproductive Health

A report by the Guttmacher Institute released on Wednesday shows that women are choosing to delay having children due to the recession. At the same time, the cost of family planning and reproductive health services have put a strain on those women’s finances.

Health reform could be hijacked by anti-abortion politics despite efforts at compromise — and some of Minnesota’s Congress members are in the thick of the debate. Reps. James Oberstar, Collin Peterson and Michele Bachmann have all been working to gut reproductive health funding from the health reform package moving through the House.

Weeks after Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed in his Kansas church, the U.S. Senate is debating a resolution condemning violence against abortion providers. But abortion politics has made even the simple task of passing a resolution denouncing violence into a contentious battle. The words “reproductive health care” could be a deal breaker with [...]

Dr. George Tiller, a reproductive health physician and medical director of a clinic that performs abortions in Wichita, Kan., was gunned down in his church on Sunday. Anti-abortion groups immediately sent out a flurry of press releases, most condemning the murder but a few implying that Tiller had it coming.

Anti-abortion programs and opposition to human cloning fared well under the governor’s watchful eye toward the end of the legislative session — and that has earned Gov. Tim Pawlenty high marks from anti-abortion activists. But, despite those few successes, much of the agenda of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) went unfulfilled.

Minnesota’s anti-abortion forces are hoping a slate of bills will restrict access to abortion. Four bills have been offered this session, from outright bans on the procedure to data collection mandates, but none of them stand a chance of passing with a pro-choice DFL leadership.

Government health officials testified Monday that rates of sexually transmitted diseases are rising, particularly among urban women, and that a proposed bill to increase funding for testing, treatment and education might stem the steady rise in rates and curb teen pregnancy. But, given the state’s budget woes and Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s ties to the religious right, the bill faces steep hurdles.

The budget proposed Tuesday by Gov. Tim Pawlenty would cut $2 million from the Family Planning Special Projects, a grant program that funds health departments, nonprofits and tribal governments that provide family planning services to low-income Minnesotans. The cut amounts to a 20-percent reduction.

A man who rammed his SUV into the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul on Thursday told police that Jesus told him to do it, the Star Tribune reports. Matthew L. Derosia was watching a Catholic television channel when he says Jesus told him to “Stop the murderers.”
He told police that “we are in World [...]

More than 3,000 anti-abortion activists gathered at the state capitol to hear Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Sen. Norm Coleman at the annual “March for Life.” But one group garnering more attention was Planned Parenthood. Only hours after an anti-abortion activist slammed his SUV into a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, rally attendees held up signs condemning the reproductive health organization, and MCCL speakers called for the defunding of the group they called the “abortion industry.”