Morning Roundup: Conservatives Stonewalling and Progressives Play Offense

What is Lester Crawford hiding? The former FDA commish that specialized in delaying and denying OTC access to Emergency Contraception has refused to be deposed in hearings and says he will invoke 5th Amendment privileges in a law suit relating to the delays. On Friday, Newsday reported that White House appointment calendar logs show a meeting between Jay Lefkowitz while in the Domestic Policy office of the White House, and Mark Mclellan at the FDA " re: Plan B submis. " Attorney's are seeking access to more documents in a case that has already clearly established the Bush Administration's politicization of the FDA delays on Plan B.

What is Lester Crawford hiding? The former FDA commish that specialized in delaying and denying OTC access to Emergency Contraception has refused to be deposed in hearings and says he will invoke 5th Amendment privileges in a law suit relating to the delays. On Friday, Newsday reported that White House appointment calendar logs show a meeting between Jay Lefkowitz while in the Domestic Policy office of the White House, and Mark Mclellan at the "re: Plan B submis." Attorney’s are seeking access to more documents in a case that has already clearly established the Bush Administration’s politicization of the FDA delays on Plan B.

While the White House plays defense (on every front imaginable), progressive legislators in Ohio started playing a little offense with a proposal to increase access to contraception and require comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence-only programs in schools. The proposal provides OTC access and promotes awareness of EC and would, “add requirements to teach in public schools the use and risks of contraception in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The law currently requires only telling students that abstinence is the best way to prevent pregnancy and disease," as reported by the AP.

Pew Research Center survey last August, indicates that three-fourths of Americans favor teaching birth control alongside abstinence in schools and half support making emergency contraception available without a prescription, while 37 percent oppose it.

A new PLAN clinic in Minnesota is in the news because it is located in a strip mall. “Our goal is to increase access for women to safe and effective methods of contraception by making these services rapidly available in a retail setting where they probably are going to be anyway," said Dr. Carol Ball, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.

All of this evidence continues to demonstrate the reproductive health community is actively working to reduce abortion and increase reliable information that allows families to make their own decisions based on facts. Bush allies on the far right can point to the President’s home state of Texas for reliable evidence that his policies fail as Vivian Greentree blogs at idealistlefty that “Texas has one of the highest teen birth rates in the country, and an incredibly high rate of unintended pregnancies.”

More rhetoric from Judie Brown from American Life League as she called a mothers day card campaign from pro-choice advocates in Hollywood “unspeakable” likely because it accurately demonstrates that many mothers are worried about the "growing movement to limit women's reproductive rights" in South Dakota, as well as nationally and internationally.

Finally, while families around the country celebrated Mother’s Day, the Clintons (Hillary and Chelsea) mended fences with the elder explaining that "I just want to set the bar high, because we are in a competition for the future," when she called young people today “lazy.” Not terribly inspiring for her younger campaign workers, but thankfully Chelsea set her straight. Senator Clinton gets NARAL’s endorsement in her Senate race today, even after, “speaking forcefully about the need for opponents and supporters (of abortion) to seek to bridge some of their differences.” The reproductive health community continues to work toward goals Americans agree on while right wing opposition remain interested in partisan polarization for the sake of politics alone – it’s time to get real.