Abortion

Kathleen Sebelius told the FDA she does not agree that the clinical evidence supports across-the-counter access to the drug.

Republicans slammed the Obama administration Thursday after it rejected an anti-human-trafficking grant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Romney's past support for abortion rights makes him suspect to many conservatives.

Abortion-rights supporters believe the controversial issue will drive voters to the polls and work in their favor in 2012.

The abortion-rights group said abortion is among the most compelling issues for women who supported President Obama in 2008.

Mississippi voters on Tuesday rejected a proposal to define fertilized eggs as people — a major setback for an aggressive anti-abortion-rights movement that has already failed elsewhere.

The so-called “personhood” initiative would have changed Mississippi law to say life begins at the “moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof.” Even some abortion-rights opponents, including Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, said the approach could jeopardize access to birth control and in vitro fertilization.

The measure was failing 42 percent to 58 percent at the time the Associated Press called the race.

Colorado voters have twice rejected a similar proposal. Supporters are trying to get personhood measures on the ballot next year in several states, including Florida.

Women’s health advocates also warned that defining embryos as people could carry unintended consequences. They asked, for example, whether state law-enforcement offices would have to investigate miscarriages as potential homicides.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America praised the vote.

"Mississippi voters rejected the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment because they understood it is government gone too far, and would have allowed government to have control over personal decisions that should be left up to a woman, her family, her doctor and her faith," the group said in a statement.

Voters in Mississippi could approve unprecedented restrictions on abortion when they head to the polls Tuesday.

House lawmakers bitterly clashed Wednesday over the healthcare reform law’s requirement that insurance plans cover birth control, the latest evidence that the political fight over women’s healthcare has moved beyond abortion.

Republicans condemned the health law’s coverage expansion, calling it an unprecedented government intrusion on the religious freedoms of employers and insurers. Democrats countered that the GOP wants to put the “conscience rights” of employers before those of patients.

The clash came during a hearing on new regulations that would require insurers to cover a wide array of preventive services, including contraception, without co-pay starting next year. Health and Human Services exempted some religious groups from the birth-control requirement, but critics say those guidelines are too narrow.

GOP candidate Herman Cain said on Sunday's "Face the Nation" that Planned Parenthood was created to "kill black babies," a claim that's been debunked as a "ridiculous, cynical play on the race card" by PolitiFact in the past.

State efforts to give "personhood" rights to fetuses ignore their mothers, Feministing.com founder Jessica Valenti writes in The Washington Post.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that all adolescents be screened for alcohol, tobacco and other drug use at every office visit, MedPage Today reports.

The New York Times' Gina Kolata writes about the shift away from routine cancer screening.

The White House is losing another top woman aide, with Planned Parenthood announcing Thursday that it has hired Dana Singiser, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs, to serve as the reproductive rights organization's vice president for public policy and government relations.

Singiser had been with the president since his 2008 campaign, and was a key part in the team that shepherded his healthcare reform law through Congress.

“Dana Singiser is a highly respected advocate. We’re thrilled to have someone of Dana’s experience and caliber be a part of our team as we focus on expanding access to health care and making the new health care reform law a tangible reality for women across the country,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards in a statement.