McCollum blasts GOP plan to defund women’s health services

“Dumb.” That’s how Rep. Betty McCollum characterized proposed cuts to federal family planning funding and a Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood. At a St. Paul Planned Parenthood clinic Thursday, she also noted that Republicans refused to cut Pentagon funding for NASCAR, but remain adamant about cuts she says could have devastating effects for Minnesota women and children.

Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota president Sarah Stoesz introduced McCollum at the press event.

“It’s a challenging time for women’s health and for all of us who care about women in this country,” she said. “We’ve been under quite an attack,” referencing conservative bloggers’ campaign against the health care nonprofit as well as congressional actions to bar federal funds from going to its clinics.

“We do provide abortion services — that’s true we do — it’s about 5 percent of what we do, but primarily what we do is protect the lives and health of women,” she said.

To underscore that point, a clinic patient told the story of her sister, who lives in rural Minnesota near Mankato and whose life she says was saved by the health care group.

“Planned Parenthood is the reason my sister’s cervical cancer was found early and treated successfully,” she said. “My sister’s story has a very happy ending because of Planned Parenthood.”

GOP budget cuts in the U.S. House would eliminate federal Title X funding, a part of which helps support cancer screenings at clinics such as Planned Parenhood’s.

“Who would have though that we would have to be concerned about women’s reproductive rights, women’s rights in 2011 in America,” she said.

She said that the proposed cuts and calls to defund Planned Parenthood involve debates over abortion, but the services of Planned Parenthood are much broader.

“Yes, there are needed at times — it should be extremely rare and in a moment of difficult emotional crisis for women — to look at having an abortion, but that’s 5 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,” said McCollum.

“Ninety-five percent of what Planned Parenthood does is the first line of defense in women’s reproductive health and total overall health,” she added.

She continued, “We can make smart cuts or we can make dumb cuts — and cutting Title X is a dumb cut.”

In the Republicans’ proposed budget, Title X funding would be completely slashed from the federal budget, and those funds are used for health care screenings for women and birth control services. Under federal law, the funds cannot go to abortion services.

Republicans targeting WIC as well

The GOP is also proposing cuts to the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program.

“We heard defense spending was off the table, that we could not cut defense spending, but what the House decided we needed were two different engines for one piece of military equipment and that we had to protect the military’s ability to purchase decals for NASCARs,” she said.

“I think there’s room to cut in the Pentagon. There should be room for children, and women who are expecting, to have access to basic nutrition in the United States of America.”

McCollum has been a major force in trying to cut NASCAR funding from the federal budget, a cause that resulted in death threats being sent to her office.

“And they are talking about more cuts,” she continued, adding that a government shutdown is looming. “No more of these stupid, dumb cuts that are going to hurt women, hurt families, and hurt communities. It’s so foolish to even talk about cutting nutrition for women who are either nursing or preparing to deliver a child.”

McCollum, who recently visited Yemen where citizens are calling for Democratic reforms and more rights for women, said she spoke with people who were surprised by Republicans’ plans to cut programs for women and children.

“When they pick up the paper and read that we are cutting it off, they said, ‘This isn’t the America we know,’” she said.

Ultimately, she said that the majority of Americans support Title X programs — even Republicans.

“There are a lot of Republicans and independents that support access to mammographies, cervical cancer screenings and ensuring families can plan by having access to birth control,” she said.

“We can’t let a small group of people hold us hostage on the way forward in the United States.”

Hot flashes at menopause may signal a lower risk for heart attacks and stroke

Hot flashes and night sweats at menopause are uncomfortable and annoying to many women. But they are also associated with a reduced risk of future heart attacks and strokes, researchers reported Thursday.

Hot flashes, which doctors call vasomotor symptoms, are a major issue in women’s health because there are so few effective remedies to relieve them. In recent years, however, some studies have suggested that hot flashes and night sweats may also be a sign of potential cardiovascular problems. The idea is that hot flashes may be a response to some type of dysfunction in blood vessels that could also raise the risk of heart attack and stroke.

However, a new study, published in the journal Menopause, suggests that idea is an over-simplification. Researchers analyzed data from 60,000 post-menopausal women who were part of the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study. They found that the timing of hot flashes appears to matter greatly. Women who had hot flashes or night sweats at the start of menopause were actually at a slightly lower risk for stroke, heart disease and death compared with women who never had hot flashes or night sweats. The risk reductions were 17% for stroke, 11% for heart disease and 11% death.

“It is reassuring that these symptoms, which are experienced by so many women, do not seem to correlate with increased risk of cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Emily Szmuilowicz, a co-author of the study from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said in a news release.

However, women in the study who did not have hot flashes or night sweats at the onset of menopause but developed them later in menopause (they were having symptoms at an average age of 63) had a 32% higher risk of heart attack and a 29% higher risk of stroke.

Women who developed hot flashes and night sweats at the onset of menopause and continued to have them into later menopause had no increased or decreased risk.

It’s not clear why hot flashes at the time of menopause are linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular events. But the authors wrote: “One possibility is that perimenopausal vasomotor symptoms represent a physiologic response to the normal perimenopausal hormonal fluctuations, and the absence of these symptoms may signify a blunted vascular response to these hormonal changes.”

Far fewer women develop hot flashes years after menopause begins, the authors note. But more research should be devoted to the link between late symptoms and cardiovascular risk. Hot flashes occurring well after menopause may be a marker for instability in blood vessels, they wrote.

Va. OKs bill to likely close most abortion clinics

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia took a big step Thursday toward eliminating most of the state’s 21 abortion clinics, approving a bill that would likely make rules so strict the medical centers would be forced to close, Democrats and abortion rights supporters said.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican and Catholic, supports the measure and when he signs it into law, Virginia will become the first state to require clinics that provide first-trimester abortions to meet the same standards as hospitals. The requirements could include anything from expensive structural changes like widening hallways to increased training and mandatory equipment the clinics currently don’t have.

While abortion providers must be licensed in Virginia, the clinics resemble dentists’ offices and are considered physicians offices, similar to those that provide plastic and corrective eye surgeries, colonoscopies and a host of other medical procedures.

Democrats and abortion rights supporters said the change would put an estimated 17 of the state’s 21 clinics out of business. Most of the clinics also provide birth control, cancer screenings and other women’s health services.

“This is not about safety for women. This is about ideology, and this is about politics,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. “The women of the commonwealth are going to be the ones left to suffer.”

Abortion rights supporters warned of legal challenges while supporters heralded it as a way to make the procedures safer.

“It is not about banning abortions,” said Sen. Jill Vogel, R-Winchester. “It is simply caring for women who are about to have an invasive surgical procedure and creating an environment for them where they have the opportunity to do that in a place that is safe.”

No other state requires clinics that provide early abortions to meet hospital standards.

Nineteen states, including Virginia, require an abortion to be performed in a hospital after 12 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortions and laws concerning the procedures.

More than 27,000 of the 28,000 abortions performed each year in Virginia are completed during the first-trimester, Keene said.

“Does Virginia really want to take the lead in such obstruction?” asked Sen. Maime Locke, D-Hampton, who called the bill “draconian and patriarchal at best.”

Democrats argued it wouldn’t pass constitutional muster because it would put an undue burden on poor women and those in rural areas, where clinics likely would close. They also argued it would violate the equal protection guarantees of the Constitution by treating abortions differently than similar procedures.

“Absolutely all that will be accomplished by this vote is to restrict access to a safe and legal procedure to poor women,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington. “This does nothing to end abortions. It is purely discriminatory. It makes me heartsick.”

Laurence H. Tribe, professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, said the bill would likely be deemed unconstitutional “because its transparent purpose and effect would be to make such early abortions far more difficult if not impossible for many women to obtain.”

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who supported similar legislation as a state senator, said he believes the law would be constitutional.

“For over 25 years, Virginia abortion clinics have not been held to minimal health and safety standards,” he said. “As a result, women who walk into these clinics are often not treated with the care and respect that any human being deserves.”

Anti-abortion bills typically die in a Democrat-controlled Senate committee, but Republicans in the House tacked it onto a bill that already had passed the Senate. Doing so allowed the bill to sidestep the committee and forced a vote on the Senate floor, where Democrats hold a 22-18 majority.

Two anti-abortion Democrats voted with Republicans, and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, cast the tie-breaking vote after hours of debate.

After it becomes law in July, the state Board of Health will take public comments before issuing the guidelines. The board is appointed by the governor.