Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Friday said he would introduce a bill (S 1375) that would increase postpartum depression research at NIH and would provide grants to state and local health care workers to increase screening and treatment of the condition, CQ HealthBeat reports (Webber, CQ HealthBeat, 5/11).
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee earlier this month debated similar legislation (HR 20), sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), that would "expand and intensify" research at the National Institute of Mental Health and other agencies on postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. The bill also would provide grants through HHS for the "establishment, operation and coordination of effective and cost-efficient systems for the delivery of essential services" for women with the conditions and their families. Some Republicans on the House panel indicated that the measure should be amended to include language on "postabortion depression" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/2).
Menendez's bill includes a provision from Rush's bill requiring NIMH to increase research on postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. The measure, which is supported by several psychiatric and women's health organizations, does not specify funding amounts for grants or research, but it would authorize "such sums as may be appropriated," Menendez said.
Menendez said the legislation is modeled after a 2006 New Jersey law that provides $4.5 million annually for postpartum depression education and screening and requires health care workers to inform pregnant women about postpartum depression. According to CQ HealthBeat, versions of Rush's and Menendez's measures have been introduced for several years but have never seen action. About 10% to 20% of women experience postpartum depression after giving birth to their first infant, according to NIH estimates (CQ HealthBeat, 5/11).
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
четверг, 24 ноября 2011 г.
четверг, 17 ноября 2011 г.
China To Augment Fines For Couples Who Violate One-Child Policy According To Income Level
The Chinese government recently ordered local authorities to check incomes and financial statements before issuing fines for couples who violate the national one-child-per-family policy, the South China Morning Post reports (Pinghui, South China Morning Post, 9/15). China's one-child-per-family policy seeks to keep the country's population, now 1.3 billion, at about 1.7 billion by 2050. Methods of enforcing the policy, such as fines and work demotions, vary among Chinese provinces and cities (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/27).
According to the Morning Post, the National Population and Family Planning Commission and 10 other ministries and bureaus in a joint statement released on NPFPC's Web site said that fines will be adjusted according to income level. The policy was approved five years ago, but local authorities have not enforced it effectively, the Morning Post reports. The statement said that people who violate the policy will be recorded in the People's Bank of China's credit system, but it did not say how the information would be used, the Morning Post reports.
The statement said influential people and public figures should "set a good example" by following the law. The "relevant authorities must make obeying the family planning regulation a basic requirement of hiring or promoting a cadre," the statement said, adding, "It should be a key factor in deciding whether a person is qualified to be a delegate to the party congress at all levels or as a deputy to the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference." According to the statement, "Any public figure who deliberately violates the policy will be publicly denounced and severely punished according to the law."
According to Reuters, government media recently has released an increasing number of reports about officials, entertainers and business executives having more than one child, and some provinces have scaled up enforcement of the one-child policy (Reuters, 9/15).
According to the Morning Post, the National Population and Family Planning Commission and 10 other ministries and bureaus in a joint statement released on NPFPC's Web site said that fines will be adjusted according to income level. The policy was approved five years ago, but local authorities have not enforced it effectively, the Morning Post reports. The statement said that people who violate the policy will be recorded in the People's Bank of China's credit system, but it did not say how the information would be used, the Morning Post reports.
The statement said influential people and public figures should "set a good example" by following the law. The "relevant authorities must make obeying the family planning regulation a basic requirement of hiring or promoting a cadre," the statement said, adding, "It should be a key factor in deciding whether a person is qualified to be a delegate to the party congress at all levels or as a deputy to the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference." According to the statement, "Any public figure who deliberately violates the policy will be publicly denounced and severely punished according to the law."
According to Reuters, government media recently has released an increasing number of reports about officials, entertainers and business executives having more than one child, and some provinces have scaled up enforcement of the one-child policy (Reuters, 9/15).
Opinion Piece
To enhance China's "long-term economic outlook," the country must recognize that its one-child policy "has been a tragic and historic mistake" and must "abandon it, immediately," Nicholas Eberstadt, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, writes in a related Wall Street Journal opinion piece. According to Eberstadt, the "superficial success" of the policy to reduce the country's fertility rate "comes with immense inadvertent costs and unintended consequences," including China's "incipient aging crisis, its looming family-structure problems and its worrisome gender imbalances."
Some Chinese officials might "worry that the end of the one-child policy might mean the return to the five-child family -- but in reality, modern China is most unlikely to return to preindustrial fertility norms," Eberstadt writes. He concludes, "Trusting China's people to act in their own self-interest ... may very well prove to be the key to whether China ultimately succeeds in abolishing poverty and attaining mass affluence in the decades and generations ahead." According to the Journal, Eberstadt's opinion piece is an excerpt he delivered at a World Economic Forum conference in Dalian, China, earlier this month (Eberstadt, Wall Street Journal, 9/17).
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
четверг, 10 ноября 2011 г.
Morpace Inc. Reports: Hispanic American Women Unaware Of Heart Disease Threat
In a national survey
of adults, 60 percent of Hispanic American adult females indicated a lack
of awareness that heart disease is the #1 fatal disease among women.
Further, nearly half are unaware that Hispanic women's risk of heart
disease is greater than that of Caucasian women. Dania Rich-Spencer, Vice
President of Morpace's Health Care practice, said, "Programs such as the Go
Red For Women, founded by the American Heart Association (AHA), have made
great strides in raising awareness of heart disease's impact on women, but
the message apparently has not made its way into Hispanic communities." She
added, "Our research suggests that there is a real opportunity to target
this key ethnic group with educational efforts that raise awareness and
promote prevention strategies."
Rich-Spencer said that the heart disease awareness data comes from the
quarterly Morpace Omnibus Survey, conducted on the Internet in July, 2008,
on a variety of current topics.
About Morpace Inc.
Morpace is a full-service survey research and consulting organization
specializing in automotive, financial services, health care, retail and
technology. Morpace has global expertise in providing innovative
proprietary solutions to clients in four core areas: market definition and
segmentation; product development and pricing; brand and image positioning;
and customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Established in 1941, Morpace Inc., an ISO 9001:2000 certified
organization, is one of the largest privately held marketing research firms
in the United States. Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan the
company has offices in Irvine, California; New York City; and London,
England.
Visit morpace for more information.
Morpace Inc.
morpace
of adults, 60 percent of Hispanic American adult females indicated a lack
of awareness that heart disease is the #1 fatal disease among women.
Further, nearly half are unaware that Hispanic women's risk of heart
disease is greater than that of Caucasian women. Dania Rich-Spencer, Vice
President of Morpace's Health Care practice, said, "Programs such as the Go
Red For Women, founded by the American Heart Association (AHA), have made
great strides in raising awareness of heart disease's impact on women, but
the message apparently has not made its way into Hispanic communities." She
added, "Our research suggests that there is a real opportunity to target
this key ethnic group with educational efforts that raise awareness and
promote prevention strategies."
Rich-Spencer said that the heart disease awareness data comes from the
quarterly Morpace Omnibus Survey, conducted on the Internet in July, 2008,
on a variety of current topics.
About Morpace Inc.
Morpace is a full-service survey research and consulting organization
specializing in automotive, financial services, health care, retail and
technology. Morpace has global expertise in providing innovative
proprietary solutions to clients in four core areas: market definition and
segmentation; product development and pricing; brand and image positioning;
and customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Established in 1941, Morpace Inc., an ISO 9001:2000 certified
organization, is one of the largest privately held marketing research firms
in the United States. Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan the
company has offices in Irvine, California; New York City; and London,
England.
Visit morpace for more information.
Morpace Inc.
morpace
четверг, 3 ноября 2011 г.
'New And Improved Antiabortion Movement' Still Ignores Needs Of Women, Salon Opinion Piece States
A "new set of antiabortion actors" who are "anti-war, anti-capital punishment, pro-environment 'pro-lifers'" have "emerged as the face of a new and improved antiabortion movement," Salon columnist Frances Kissling writes. Although these advocates supported President Obama in the 2008 election, they "suffer from the same lack of understanding of women's nature and identity as do old-line anti-abortionists," Kissling writes. She notes that this group has "already decided that a political effort to make abortion illegal is hopeless, which helps the pro-choice cause." According to Kissling, "Taking legality off the table" increases the prospects for "rational public discourse about all the factors at play in women's decisions not to continue pregnancy and not to become mothers," but "[w]e are ... far from common ground between the new anti-abortionists and the pro-choice advocates."
Members of this new group believe that data suggesting that many women decide to have abortions for financial reasons prove that "better economic support" for pregnant women "will result in more continued pregnancies and more women embracing motherhood," Kissling writes. In addition, they "assert that if adoption policies were friendlier," more women would choose adoption over abortion, according to Kissling. "But facts have little place in their strategy," as the policies they support "are already in place in much of Europe," and "few women who face unintended pregnancies in those countries opt out of abortion," Kissling writes. She adds, "Something much deeper influences a woman's decision about what to do when she is pregnant and does not want to become a mother -- and the new anti-choicers don't seem to have a clue about what this might be." For this group, "the outcome [of pregnancy] -- the new person -- is obviously so much more valuable than whatever short-term loss or pain the women might experience," Kissling writes. Therefore, they believe it is "not asking much of a woman who faces an unwanted, difficult or unintended pregnancy to shift the plan she had for this time in her life and continue the pregnancy," according to Kissling.
Kissling lists four "positions taken by the new antiabortionists [that] illuminate this flawed thinking." The first is "[d]enying the 'need' for abortion," she writes. Secondly, their "same sense of pregnancy as no big deal influences the new antiabortionists' unwillingness to embrace contraception," Kissling says. She adds that "[i]f we really understood what it meant for women to consent to becoming mothers, we would want them to be able to meet their moral obligation to their own identity by avoiding becoming pregnant." The third position is an attempt to make "sex sacred," Kissling writes, adding that if "creating new life is sacred, then we want men and women to have the tools necessary to fulfill the obligation to create life responsibly and not create it when they cannot -- or choose not to -- bring it to fruition." The fourth position is "[r]edefining adoption," Kissling continues. She asks whether adoption is "now a process of finding children for needy parents," adding, "Might it not be more generous of us as a society to work harder to make it possible for women to keep their children if they so wish?"
Kissling writes that the "challenge to the new antiabortionists" is whether "women's perspectives on the meaning of pregnancy and motherhood will be considered in their project" or if "their ethical frame will remain focused on the fetus." She asks, "How many of these women's decisions will the new antiabortionists be able to say 'yes' to?" Kissling concludes, "So far it seems that it is far more than abortion that is a stumbling block to common ground" (Kissling, Salon, 7/20).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
Members of this new group believe that data suggesting that many women decide to have abortions for financial reasons prove that "better economic support" for pregnant women "will result in more continued pregnancies and more women embracing motherhood," Kissling writes. In addition, they "assert that if adoption policies were friendlier," more women would choose adoption over abortion, according to Kissling. "But facts have little place in their strategy," as the policies they support "are already in place in much of Europe," and "few women who face unintended pregnancies in those countries opt out of abortion," Kissling writes. She adds, "Something much deeper influences a woman's decision about what to do when she is pregnant and does not want to become a mother -- and the new anti-choicers don't seem to have a clue about what this might be." For this group, "the outcome [of pregnancy] -- the new person -- is obviously so much more valuable than whatever short-term loss or pain the women might experience," Kissling writes. Therefore, they believe it is "not asking much of a woman who faces an unwanted, difficult or unintended pregnancy to shift the plan she had for this time in her life and continue the pregnancy," according to Kissling.
Kissling lists four "positions taken by the new antiabortionists [that] illuminate this flawed thinking." The first is "[d]enying the 'need' for abortion," she writes. Secondly, their "same sense of pregnancy as no big deal influences the new antiabortionists' unwillingness to embrace contraception," Kissling says. She adds that "[i]f we really understood what it meant for women to consent to becoming mothers, we would want them to be able to meet their moral obligation to their own identity by avoiding becoming pregnant." The third position is an attempt to make "sex sacred," Kissling writes, adding that if "creating new life is sacred, then we want men and women to have the tools necessary to fulfill the obligation to create life responsibly and not create it when they cannot -- or choose not to -- bring it to fruition." The fourth position is "[r]edefining adoption," Kissling continues. She asks whether adoption is "now a process of finding children for needy parents," adding, "Might it not be more generous of us as a society to work harder to make it possible for women to keep their children if they so wish?"
Kissling writes that the "challenge to the new antiabortionists" is whether "women's perspectives on the meaning of pregnancy and motherhood will be considered in their project" or if "their ethical frame will remain focused on the fetus." She asks, "How many of these women's decisions will the new antiabortionists be able to say 'yes' to?" Kissling concludes, "So far it seems that it is far more than abortion that is a stumbling block to common ground" (Kissling, Salon, 7/20).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
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