Strict abortion bill revisited in S.D.

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 04:23:20 GMT
By JOE KAFKA, Associated Press Writer
PIERRE, S.D. - Lawmakers who watched as a near-total ban on abortions failed in South Dakota voting booths last year have revived the legislation with changes that may make the difference in public acceptance. But the bill's success is far from assured.
None of the Legislature's leaders, notably some sponsors of last year's bill, are joining the effort this year because waging last year's fight was so exhausting.

"It's far too soon to put our state through something of such a difficult nature again," said Democratic Sen. Julie Bartling, a prime sponsor of last year's abortion bill.

"The state needs to heal, and I just don't feel that we need to take this up in this legislative session again," she added. "The people have spoken."

The bill introduced in January includes exceptions for victims of rape or incest and if continuing the pregnancy would harm the woman's health significantly.

Last year's ban exempted only abortions needed to save a woman's life, and the lack of more exceptions was cited when voters repealed the ban in November. Public opinion polls have shown that a ban with rape and incest exceptions would pass muster with South Dakotans.

A chief sponsor of the current bill, Republican Rep. Gordon Howie, said legislators must not lose their momentum and noted that the repeal passed with only 56 percent of the vote.

"What the voters told us was that they were uncomfortable with the rape and incest circumstances. And so this bill is one that was specifically designed for the majority of South Dakotans or with them in mind," Howie said.

The bill would allow rape victims to get abortions if they report the rapes to police within 50 days. Doctors would have to confirm those reports with police; doctors also would have to give blood from aborted fetuses to police for DNA testing in rape and incest cases.

In the case of incest, a doctor and the woman would have to report the identity of the alleged perpetrator to police before an abortion could be done.

Abortions could be done only until the 17th week of pregnancy in cases of incest and rape.

Opponents of both bills say this year's bill carries onerous reporting provisions for victims of sex crimes.

"Rather than helping rape and incest survivors, this bill does nothing more than re-victimize them by forcing them and their families into a web of government bureaucracy and intrusion," said Kate Looby, state director of Planned Parenthood in South Dakota. "Under this bill, the victim's privacy and confidentiality are lost entirely."

About 800 abortions are done each year in South Dakota, nearly all of them at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Sioux Falls, the state's largest city.

Howie and others who support this year's bill hope it can become a legal avenue that could cause the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortions.

Utah also has legislation in progress that would ban abortion except for rape, incest and saving the mother's health, and the bill would set up a trust fund to pay for the expected court challenge.

The Mississippi Legislature, which last year considered a near-ban, this year also added exemptions for rape or incest. Both versions allowed abortions to save a mother's life, but not her health.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican who signed the near-ban last year, said he was not prepared to say whether he would sign the current version.
Bartling doubts it will even pass both legislative chambers. Although support appears strong in the House, she doubts sentiment is the same in the Senate State Affairs Committee. Testimony on the bill was scheduled to start Monday.
"I just don't think it'll make it to the Senate floor," Bartling said. "I've even talked to very pro-life Republican legislators that are not in favor of bringing it back this year. I think it's just too soon."
Heather DeWit, 26, an after-school program director in Sioux Falls, said she's glad lawmakers have revived the abortion issue. Dewit voted in favor of last year's bill in November.
"I think they should look at it again and maybe look at it in a different way, with the exceptions, if that's what they think it'll take to get it through," DeWit said. "I don't necessarily think the exceptions are needed, but it seems like the voters want to see that."

Practice patients break in med students

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:10:07 GMT
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO - Most women want to put off that dreaded once-a-year pelvic exam. Imagine volunteering to have one four times a week — by a trembling novice doctor.
That's what Kat Wentworth does. She works as a stand-in patient to help train medical students how to give below-the-waist exams.

Some say she should get battle pay. But Wentworth says she is happy to move medical residents "from a place of fear and anxiety to a place of ease and success."

The student doctors say her advice is invaluable.

Wentworth is among thousands of regular citizens across the country who are willing to let budding doctors practice on them so the rest of us can be in better hands when real illness strikes. Of course, most fake patients aren't volunteering for such an intimate exam.

Chicago actress Vickie Daignault, for example, has suffered breast cancer, drug addiction, obesity and dizzy spells to help train medical students at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She's had the fun of seeing the occasional cocky young doctor miss the mark in his diagnosis when she holds back crucial information — such as the use of crack cocaine — just as a real patient might.

Students know these patients are fake, but each gets an identity and a medical history, and the pretend office visits often seem very real. They have one big advantage over the real thing, however — allowing many "takes" to help students get it right.

"In real life, you can't yell 'Cut!'" said Dr. Rachel Yudkowsky, who oversees the Chicago program.

Wentworth realized the need for better training for pelvic exams after having uncomfortable checkups from uneasy doctors. She now runs her own business in Oakland, Calif., supplying male and female practice patients for everyone's least favorite doctor visits — genital, rectal and breast exams. Some have health backgrounds, but there are an editor, musician and real estate consultant among her group, too.

In her first visit with the nervous newbie docs, Wentworth says she tells the students, "Don't be afraid to hurt, I won't let you. I will be guiding you with my voice and sometimes my hands."

Dr. Nick Rubashkin, an obstetrics-gynecology resident at University of California at San Francisco, did his first pelvic exam on Wentworth a few years ago when he was a med student at Stanford.

"I was totally nervous. I remember the sweat breaking out on my forehead," he recalled.

Having a practice patient who was calm and knowledgeable and who gave instant feedback "was invaluable," said the 31-year-old doctor.

In a University of Massachusetts study published last year, graduate-level nursing students reported learning better pelvic exam skills from trained "fake" patients than from practicing on each other.

"Thank God there's somebody to teach the students how to do it so they don't do their first one on you," said Yudkowsky.

If book smarts were the only thing required to make a good doctor, she said, no one would care "if you're an obnoxious, arrogant physician. But we do care, and patients really care."

A big change in medical education in 2004 helped solidify fake patients' role. That's when a clinical skills exam, using phony patients to test bedside manner, became a requirement for a medical license in the United States.

Some medical schools since have started requiring a similar exam for graduation.
The pay is generally good; Wentworth declined to say how much she gets but it's considerably more than the usual $14- to $25-an-hour fee many schools offer standard fake patients.
They "deserve battle pay," said Linda Morrison of the education and curriculum department at Southern Illinois University's medical school.
Medical students have high praise for more standard fake patients, too.
At the University of Illinois at Chicago, second-year student Shawn Roofian, 22, grew flustered during one of his fake office visits with Daignault, who was portraying a lesbian with dizzy spells. Ruffian wrongly assumed she was straight — and kicked himself over it later, saying he "wasn't properly sensitive."
Such communication lessons are priceless, he said.
"If the patient isn't comfortable with me, then they're not going to come back, and I'll never know why," he said. "I want my patients to leave saying, 'That's a good doctor."
___
On the Net:
http://www.projectprepare.org

Boots to sell Viagra without prescription

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 05:47:30 GMT

LONDON - British pharmacy chain Boots will begin a trial program on Valentine's Day to offer men Viagra without a prescription.
The initial pilot program will be offered in three of the chain's stores in Manchester and is expected to last six months, the company said Sunday,

Boots then will consider whether to expand it to other pharmacies. The chain has about 1,500 stores across Britain.

Men between the ages of 30 and 65 will be required to see a pharmacist, provide a medical history and have their blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels tested.

"It's still very much a prescription drug," Boots spokeswoman Clare Stafford said. "This is just a different access point to it."

If customers want a refill, they will be required to see a doctor, Stafford said.

Viagra is made by New York-based Pfizer Inc.

Portugal fails to overturn abortion law

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:55:08 GMT
By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press Writer
LISBON, Portugal - Voters failed to overturn Portugal's strict abortion law Sunday because of low turnout at the polls, but the prime minister nonetheless vowed to relax the restriction through legislation in the conservative Roman Catholic country.
With nearly all the votes counted, almost 60 percent of voters approved the referendum allowing women to opt for abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy, while slightly more than 40 percent opposed it.

However, under Portuguese law more than 50 percent of the country's 8.9 million registered voters must participate in a referendum to make the ballot valid. The turnout Sunday was 44 percent.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates, leader of the center-left Socialist Party, said he was undeterred by the failure of the referendum and would stick to his pre-ballot pledge to change the law through parliament.

"The people have spoken and they have spoken in a clear voice," Socrates said.

The result "reinforced the political and legislative legitimacy" of his plan to introduce a bill that would legalize abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy, he said. His party holds an overwhelming majority in parliament.

Debate over the abortion law, one of the most restrictive in the European Union, pitted the Socialist government against conservative parties and the Catholic Church, which claims more than 90 percent of Portuguese as followers.

Under current law, the procedure is allowed only in cases of rape, fetal malformation or if a mother's health is in danger, and only in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

In most other EU nations, abortion is permitted within much broader limits. Women can ask for abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy in Britain and up to the 12th week in Germany, France and Italy.

Church officials made no immediate comment on the referendum.

Luis Marques Mendes, leader of the main opposition Social Democratic Party, said he would not stand in the way of granting broader abortion rights despite his opposition during the referendum campaign.

"Even though the result is not binding, we believe it should be democratically respected," he said.

It was the second time in less than 10 years that a referendum on the deeply divisive issue failed to draw enough voters in Portugal. In 1998, a majority of voters rejected a similar proposal; the referendum was declared void because of a low turnout, and Portugal's policy remained unchanged.

Socrates, whose party took power in a landslide victory almost two years ago after he promised broad reforms and national modernization, described Portugal's current law as "backward."

One voter, Carlos Sousa, 56, condemned the existing legislation Sunday: "It's a bad law, not suited to our society."

But Maria Candida Duarte, 72, said she wanted to keep the strict policies in place.

"It's imperative to maintain our position. A child has a right to life — from conception," she said.

The current law merely drives abortion underground, Socrates said. Women seeking to terminate their pregnancies travel to EU countries where it is legal, especially to private clinics across the border in Spain where abortion is permitted on psychological grounds, or resort to shady, back-alley clinics at home.
Abortion rights activists say about 10,000 women are hospitalized every year with complications arising from botched, illegal abortions.
"Portugal will now tackle abortion in the same way as most other developed European countries," Socrates said. Women seeking an abortion will first go through counseling "so that the decision is a considered one, not taken out of desperation," he said.
It could still be some time, however, before the law is changed. A bill would have to be voted on first in parliament and then go to the president for approval. It would come into force only when the new legislation is published in the public records — a procedure that usually takes several months.
___
Associated Press Writer Joana Mateus contributed to this report.

Obesity exacts heavy price in Saudi Arabia

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:21:25 GMT

RIYADH - Almost one in five Saudis suffer from obesity, costing the country more than three billion dollars a year, a top medical official said in remarks published.
Walid Bukhari, chief surgeon at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, said more than three million Saudis were classified as obese, out of the Gulf state's local population of about 16 million.

Those with the condition, caused by poor diet or lack of exercise, spend more than three billion dollars a year in consultation fees, medicine and medical procedures, he told Al-Watan newspaper.

Obesity can lead to illnesses ranging from arthritis to asthma as well as more serious conditions such as cancer or heart disease.

The oil-rich Gulf states have been recording higher rates of illness associated with obesity, according to a study carried out in 2005 that found 70 percent of women and 50 percent of men were obese.

Pharmacy offers viagra overthecounter for Valentines

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:55:38 GMT

LONDON - One of Britain's biggest pharmacy chains is planning to begin a trial selling viagra as an over-the-counter drug on Valentine's Day, it said.
Until now, the three million or so Britons who suffer from erectile problems have had to consult a doctor and were able to obtain viagra only with a prescription.

But from February 14, Boots -- which also sells beauty products -- is planning to begin selling the drug without the need for a prescription in a select few of the company's outlets.

Customers who want to purchase viagra at the stores involved in the trial will have to complete a medical questionnaire, with proof of their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Men between the ages of 30 and 65 will be able to buy four tablets for 50 pounds , but they will have to consult a doctor if they want more.

The trial is set to launch on Wednesday -- Valentine's Day -- in three Boots outlets in the northwestern British city of Manchester. The scheme will then be widened if it proves successful.

In addition to being more famously known as Valentine's Day, February 14 is also National Impotence Day in Britain.

70 user(s) online 1 here 262 most online 1,611 Visitor(s) Today 3,812,670 Visits 11/01/2002