Kaiser Updates

Still settling in from the big move, so here is another round of updates to keep you on your toes.

Black women living in South Carolina are more likely to develop and die from breast and cervical cancers, compared to white women, according to a study published in the Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association, the AP/WHNS reports.

The Internal Revenue Service this week revoked the tax exemption status of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue West for violating electioneering prohibitions in the 2004 presidential elections, the New York Times reports.

Although the deaths supposedly associated with RU-486 are less than Viagra, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) plans to place a hold on President Bush's nomination of acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to permanently head the agency unless "immediate steps" are taken to remove Danco Laboratories' medical abortion drug Mifeprex from the market, DeMint press secretary Wesley Denton said recently, the New York Times reports.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who opposes abortion rights, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who supports abortion rights, and other House Democrats on Thursday at a press conference announced the introduction of legislation (HR 6067), the "Reducing the Need for Abortions And Supporting Parents Act, aims to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions, Copley/Canton Repository reports (Krawzak, Copley/Canton Repository, 9/15).

Michigan Sen. Beverly Hammerstrom (R) on Tuesday introduced two bills (SB 1416, SB 1417) that would require girls in the state entering the sixth grade in the 2007-2008 school year and beyond to have received Merck's human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil, the Detroit News reports.

After Chile's Health Minister Maria Soledad Barria earlier this month announced the government's plans to distribute EC, the Appeals Court on Wednesday in a split decision issued a temporary injunction on the government's plan to distribute emergency contraceptive pills in public clinics to girls ages 14 and older at no cost and without parental consent until lawsuits challenging the plan are resolved, Reuters AlertNet reports.

Although sex education remains a taboo issue in much of China, some approaches to the subject recently have started to change and some schools have begun to teach the subject several times annually, the Washington Post reports.

Several survivors of state-sponsored forced sterilization programs recently have told their stories with the aim of compelling states to acknowledge the extent of the initiatives, the Chicago Tribune/Wichita Eagle reports. About 65,000 people, most of whom were women, were involuntarily sterilized in the U.S. from the 1920s through the 1970s, according to Paul Lombardo, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law.

The Montgomery County, Md., Public Schools' revised condom demonstration video has received positive reviews from members of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum -- one of the groups involved in a lawsuit against the school system regarding the original video and sex education curriculum -- the Washington Post reports (Aratani, Washington Post, 9/12).

Push-Polling lacks integrity. It is for the desperate and the conniving, it is for the nest of vipers who will lie, twist and manipualte anything for their so-called agenda of the minute. So leave it to Common Sense 2006, an Ohio-based group "targeting candidates who support abortion rights," who have launched a so-called "push poll" criticizing Sen. Lincoln Chafee's (R- R.I.) stance on abortion rights in an attempt to weaken his support before the state Republican primary on Tuesday, several voters in Rhode Island said, the AP/Eyewitness News reports.

U.S. District Judge Jeanne Scott on Wednesday ruled against a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that aims to block an Illinois rule that requires pharmacies to dispense prescriptions for emergency contraception -- which can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse -- saying the plaintiffs have a legitimate claim that the rule infringes on their religious rights, the AP/Belleville News Democrat reports.