Morning Roundup: Santorum, Alaska Parental Notification, Sporty HIV-Testing

Beth Saunders

Rick Santorum's presidential bid; estrogen-tainted water; more on the Pope and condoms; Alaska's parental notification law; HIV-testing at sporting events; and the Governor of Guam vetoes an anti-choice bill that's not anti-choice enough.

Happy Monday!This morning we’ve got updates on Rick Santorum’s presedential bid, estrogen-tainted water, more on the Pope and condoms, Alaska’s parental notification law, HIV-testing at sporting events, and the Governor of Guam veto of an anti-choice bill that’s not anti-choice enough.

  • Uber-conservative Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania, will be headed to Iowa this week, after recent trips to South Carolina and New Hampshire. He has formed a political action committee in Iowa, which points toward a White House bid. How would the extreme anti-choicer fare as a candidate? According to a CNN blog: “Recent polls indicate that Santorum registers in the low single digits among Republican voters when it comes to the choice for their party’s next presidential nominee.”
  • Anti-contraception activists have recently been pushing the idea that women who take birth control pills are poisoning the water supply with their “lady-pee.” (See Kimberly Inez McGuire’s feature on the topic.) But this headline says it all: Poop, Not the Pill, Causes Estrogen Pollution.
  • A Catholic Bishop, trying to explain the Pope’s remarks on condoms, essentially comes up with this: Prostitution is wrong. Homosexuality is wrong. Condoms – also wrong. But an HIV-positive gay prostitute who uses a condom, well, that could be “the first step in the conversion of that person’s life.”
  • The Alaska parental notification law had its day in court on Friday. A judge may rule on the outcome today, as the measure is scheduled to become active Tuesday, December 14. Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights sued to block the law from taking effect.
  • A rugby tournament in South Africa set up a booth for HIV-testing that proved to be so popular the organizers of the testing had to set up two additional testing stations. Do you think HIV-testing will be coming to American sporting events any time soon?
  • The Governor of Guam vetoed an “informed consent” bill that would have required women to wait 24 hours and hear about alternatives before having an abortion. An anti-choice group, which initially supported the bill, changed its mind after amendments were added, and urged the governor to veto. His letter accompanying the veto is about as anti-choice as they come. A select quote: “It is a matter of fact that some women who undergo an abortion are unaware of their legal rights to paternal support, or alternatives to abortion, or that abortion involves the killing of a human being.”

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