Ortho-Tricyclen is a common daily birth control pill. (Photo: Wikipedia)

According to the Abortion Access Project, which tracks access to reproductive health care across the country, many doctors who could perform certain procedures choose not to because of potential backlash from local residents who disapprove of abortion and related health services.

“One of the things we found through our survey project is that many general practice physicians who otherwise have the skill set to perform certain procedures such as first trimester aspiration abortion don’t do so because there is a feeling or a belief that doing so would create some sort of community backlash,” said Kathleen Lane, who works for the Abortion Access Project.

While abortion is perhaps the most controversial procedure within the field of reproductive health care, it is not the only one that is affected by small-town stigmas. For instance, young people in rural areas who wish to access birth control may be understandably uncomfortable talking about it with a doctor who could easily or inadvertently disclose what was said to parents or other relatives. There is perhaps even more stigma attached to young people who need treatments for sexually transmitted infections, which, if left untreated, can lead to serious health consequences including infertility.

Iowa women can currently access completely free long-term birth control at several clinics throughout Iowa, courtesy of a program headed by the Iowa Initiative. Across the state there are several free or low-cost clinics that provide family planning services to both men and women, regardless of income level.

“We know that all access is not created equal,” said Christie Vilsack, the former first lady of Iowa who is now executive director of the Iowa Initiative, a research organization that aims to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies across the state.

“One of the reasons the Iowa Initiative exists is that Iowa is 48th in access to reproductive health care services among the states. We are a research project that is spending the next 3 to 4 years finishing a five-year research program, and nearly everything we are doing is about access — especially access in rural Iowa. One of the reasons we are 48th is because we are a very rural state, and many of our smallest communities don’t have reproductive health care services available.”

Over the past year, the Iowa Initiative has administered a pilot program involving satellite clinics, which provide reproductive health care services to communities that would not otherwise have access to them. (When feasible, these clinics have been placed within existing medical facilities, such as hospitals and wellness centers.) The organization is also starting a test program that provides free long-term birth control to women. At the end of these test programs, the Iowa Initiative hopes to provide useful data to organizations across the country about how to successfully reduce unintended pregnancies, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars annually and are the largest factor contributing to elective abortions.

“It’s really important for people to understand that reproductive health for women is mainstream and no different than any other type of health care,” Vilsack said. “In many cases — and I think this is especially true in small towns — there is a perception that these services are taboo or something controversial when they aren’t at all. People have babies every day. Most everyone who has been sexually active has used birth control at one time or another. There’s nothing taboo about it, it is just a part of health care.”

The Iowa Initiative’s new rural satellite clinics are staffed with individuals who can provide information on the latest technological advances in family planning and who can tailor birth control options to individual needs and circumstances. The Abortion Access Project is tackling the problem in a slightly different way, working to help physicians who already practice in rural communities to be better prepared to meet the needs of women seeking reproductive health services.

“It’s true that there is a doctor drain happening in specialized services such as obstetrical care. But when we think about comprehensive reproductive health care services that include abortion and STI testing, these are not services that need to be provided only by specific doctors,” Lane said. “All of this perfectly fits into the scope of practice of family medicine. Years ago, before abortion and so much of these became hot-button political issues, women could go to their regular doctor for these services.

“There’s this whole aspect of continuity of care — of women being able to go the physician who knows their entire health history,” Lane said. “That’s the piece that is really missing for both rural and urban women.”

President-elect Barack Obama's nominees include James Jones for national security adviser, Hillary Clinton for secretary of state and Robert Gates for secretary of defense. (WDCpix and Wikimedia Commons)

In 1936, the Republican Party nominated for vice president an uncompromising critic of the New Deal named Frank Knox. A veteran of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, Knox attained prominence as a Chicago newspaperman, branding Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s economic agenda “alien and un-American” and repeatedly proclaiming its failure.

Four years later, knowing Knox’s prestige among the GOP faithful and mindful of the need for national unity as Europe fell to the Nazis, President Roosevelt made Knox, who agreed with Roosevelt on the scope of the German threat, his secretary of the Navy.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

It was possible to look this morning at President-elect Barack Obama’s national-security team and see the ghost of Knox. Obama’s choice for secretary of defense, Bob Gates, is George W. Bush’s secretary of defense, making Gates the first-ever cabinet secretary to carry over from an administration of the opposing political party. His choice for national security adviser, Jim Jones, was until February of last year a four-star Marine general and NATO commander who commanded widespread Washington respect. And his choice for secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Yet at his press conference Monday morning, Obama made clear that he’ll be the one setting the parameters of the national-security debate in his administration. Reiterating his agenda, he emphasized his goal of pulling combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months, refocusing on the fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, strengthening international institutions and recalibrating the balance between civilian and military components of the national-security apparatus. “I will be setting policy, [and will be] responsible for presenting the vision [that]… this team will implement,” Obama said.

The interplay between the outsized personalities on Obama’s national-security team and Obama’s ability to set the agenda looks likely to be a key undercurrent of the new president’s entry onto the global stage — as does the domestic politics of his appointments.

“I don’t think there has been a stronger foreign policy team or one composed of more established, leading players in the national security community since the Second World War,” said David Rothkopf, a scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace and author of “Running The World,” a history of the National Security Council. “This is precisely the kind of group that is called for in times as rife with challenges as ours. They are sound, pragmatic, realistic and willing to advance a common vision. I really don’t think we could do better.”

The group earned early praise from progressives as well, particularly given Obama’s focus on progressive goals for the Middle East like “responsibly ending the war in Iraq,” “preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to Iran… [and] seeking a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.” Progressive Democratic political consultant Matt Stoller said secretary-designate Clinton’s “challenge is Israel and Palestine. Her success is tied to that situation.”

Taylor Marsh, a political analyst, today praised both Clinton’s nomination and what it said about Obama. “Hillary Clinton as secretary of state foreshadows opportunity for Obama, especially in the Middle East and with Iran; by picking a tough advocate who can pave the way for the change, he obviously intends to bring through his diplomatic muscle,” Marsh said. “Some on the left are talking about Obama appointing a hawkish national-security team, but the people he’s chosen reveal just what a tough commander in chief he intends to be. No daylight for dovish talk when Obama begins to redeploy from Iraq.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, a top domestic-policy aide to President Bill Clinton and executive director of the progressive American Jewish lobby J Street, was enthused by Obama’s picks. “The national security team announced today by President-elect Obama brings in-depth understanding of and hands-on experience in what it takes to achieve security through peace in the Middle East,” Ben-Ami said. “Now it’s up to the president-elect to give this team the green light to pursue active diplomacy from day one of the new administration. They can rest assured that the overwhelming majority of the Amercan Jewish community will stand with them in their active pursuit of a diplomatic end to Middle East conflicts.”

Whether and how such green lights will be communicated represents a test for Obama’s approach to governing. Both he and Vice President-elect Joe Biden emphasized repeatedly at the press conference that a requirement for inclusion on the team was broad acquiescence to the Obama agenda. Obama proclaimed himself “responsible for presenting the vision” that the team “will implement.” The foreign-policy aspect of his presidency largely depends on whether he’s strong enough as an executive to maintain the cohesion that he promised.

In several policy areas, Obama appeared to have chosen his course — with Iraq foremost among them. On Friday, the neoconservative commenter Max Boot boasted that the appointment of Gates and Jones “all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.” Instead, Obama explicitly said that he still intends to withdraw combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, though he will “will listen to the recommendations of [military] commanders.” He praised the recently passed status-of-forces agreement with the Iraqi government — which demands U.S. military withdrawal from Iraqi towns and cities by June 2009 and full U.S. withdrawal by December 2011 — as providing “a glide path” out of Iraq. And he introduced Gates by stating that he “will be giving Secretary Gates and our military a new mission as soon as I take office: responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control.” In other words, Gates, a key proponent of the 2007 troop surge that Obama opposed, will have the opportunity to shape how the U.S. exits Iraq but not to litigate whether the U.S. ought to stay.

Still, Boot’s comments highlight a dilemma that Obama’s appointments pose to conservatives. Neither Gates nor Jones would have accepted Obama’s invitations had they been out of step with his strategic goals. With so much of the conservative approach to foreign policy having been implemented by the Bush administration to disastrous consequences, Gates’ Pentagon success — represented most significantly by the reduction in violence in Iraq under his watch — has been a rare point of GOP pride, as Sen. John McCain pointed out during the campaign. Yet now that Gates and Jones have signed on to the Obama agenda — as have many so-called foreign-policy realists who used to operate in the Republican orbit — the Obama administration has absorbed the viable strains of foreign-policy thinking that haven’t been proven inadequate by recent events or politically repudiated. Conservatives, and particularly the congressional GOP, face the difficult political choice of acquiescing to an emerging progressive foreign-policy consensus or opposing it by championing failed policies that voters in 2006 and 2008 overwhelmingly rejected.

Brandon Friedman, a U.S. Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, summed up his take on the emerging Obama administration by remembering Dick Cheney’s promise to U.S. troops at the 2000 Republican National Convention. Cheney, blasting the Clinton administration’s defense policies, said the arrival of George W. Bush in the White House would mean “our men and women in uniform will once again have a commander in chief they can respect, one who understands their mission and restores their morale.”

“The difference between August 2000 and December 2008,” said Friedman, a member of the veterans’ organization VoteVets, “is that if we said the same thing today about the current and incoming administrations, it would actually be true.”

Spencer Ackerman writes for our sister site, the Washington Independent.

With Sunday’s endorsement from Rep. Wayne Ford of Des Moines, Barack Obama takes the lead in endorsements from Iowa legislators with 20 to Hillary Clinton’s 19.

Clinton still leads the Iowa Senate with 10, while Joe Biden has the most House endorsements with 14.

Rumors had abounded that Ford was planning to endorse Clinton immediately after the Dec. 1 Brown and Black Forum in Des Moines, but on Dec. 4 Ford issued a non-endorsement, saying, “In my opinion, none of the candidates aggressively dealt with the problems in the urban communities.”  In Sunday’s Obama press release, Ford said Obama will be “a President who can successfully expand economic opportunity and access to affordable housing for every American — including those who live in urban communities.”

The release also noted that Ford’s endorsement gives Obama support from all four of Iowa’s African-American legislators.

In addition to Ford, Obama recently picked up support from Council Bluffs Rep. Paul Shomshor, while Biden added Reps. Eric Palmer of Oskaloosa and Dennis Cohoon of Burlington.

Only 14 of the 83 Democratic legislators remain uncommitted, including House Speaker Pat Murphy and Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (whose family members are backing Clinton.)

Below the fold, the roll call.

	Total	Senate	House
Obama	20	7	13
Clinton	19	10	9
Biden	16	2	14
Edwards	10	2	8
Dodd	3	2	1
Richardson	1	0	1
Kucinich	0	0	0
Gravel	0	0	0
Uncommitted	14	7	7
Total	83	30	53

Name	District	Home County	Endorsement	2004 Endorsement
Sen. Herman C. Quirmbach	Senate District 23	Story	Biden	none
Sen. Dr. Joe M. Seng	Senate District 43	Scott	Biden	none
Rep. McKinley Bailey	House District 9	Hamilton	Biden	new
Rep. Doris Kelley	House District 20	Black Hawk	Biden	new
Rep. Roger Thomas	House District 24	Clayton	Biden	Kerry
Rep. Polly Bukta	House District 26	Clinton	Biden	Dean
Rep. Dick Taylor	House District 33	Linn	Biden	Kerry
Rep. Lisa Heddens	House District 46	Story	Biden	Kerry
Rep. Bruce Hunter	House District 62	Polk	Biden	Dean
Rep. Kevin McCarthy	House District 67	Polk	Biden	Lieberman
Rep. Jim Lykam	House District 85	Scott	Biden	none
Rep. Mary Gaskill	House District 93	Wapello	Biden	Kerry
Rep. John Whitaker	House District 90	Van Buren	Biden	Gephardt
Rep. Mike Reasoner	House District 95	Union	Biden	Lieberman
Rep. Eric Palmer	House District 75	Mahaska	Biden	new
Rep. Dennis Cohoon	House District 88	Des Moines	Biden	Edwards
Sen. William A. Dotzler, Jr.	Senate District 11	Black Hawk	Clinton	Gephardt
Sen. Roger Stewart	Senate District 13	Jackson	Clinton	Kerry
Sen. Michael Connolly	Senate District 14	Dubuque	Clinton	Kerry
Sen. Wally E. Horn	Senate District 17	Linn	Clinton	none
Sen. Rob Hogg	Senate District 19	Linn	Clinton	none
Sen. Dennis H. Black	Senate District 21	Jasper	Clinton	Kerry
Sen. Dick L. Dearden	Senate District 34	Polk	Clinton	Gephardt
Sen. Staci Appel	Senate District 37	Warren	Clinton	new
Sen. Becky Schmitz	Senate District 45	Jefferson	Clinton	new
Sen. Gene Fraise	Senate District 46	Lee	Clinton	none
Rep. Roger Wendt	House District 2	Woodbury	Clinton	Kerry
Rep. Mark Kuhn	House District 14	Floyd	Clinton	Gephardt
Rep. Todd Taylor	House District 34	Linn	Clinton	none
Rep. Swati Dandekar	House District 36	Linn	Clinton	Kerry
Rep. Paul Bell	House District 41	Jasper	Clinton	Kerry
Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell	House District 45	Story	Clinton	new
Rep. Mary Mascher	House District 77	Johnson	Clinton	Kerry
Rep. Vicki Lensing	House District 78	Johnson	Clinton	none
Rep. Cindy Winckler	House District 86	Scott	Clinton	Dean
Sen. Jeff Danielson	Senate District 10	Black Hawk	Dodd	new
Sen. Tom Hancock	Senate District 16	Dubuque	Dodd	new
Rep. Ray Zirkelbach	House District 31	Jones	Dodd	new
Rep. Bob Kressig	House District 19	Black Hawk	Edwards	new
Sen. Daryl Beall	Senate District 25	Webster	Edwards	Dean
Sen. Keith A. Kreiman	Senate District 47	Davis	Edwards	Edwards
Rep. Wes Whitead	House District 1	Woodbury	Edwards	Gephardt
Rep. Andrew Wenthe	House District 18	Fayette	Edwards	new
Rep. Ro Foege	House District 29	Linn	Edwards	Edwards
Rep. Art Staed	House District 37	Linn	Edwards	new
Rep. Geri Huser	House District 42	Polk	Edwards	Edwards
Rep. Nathan Reichert	House District 80	Muscatine	Edwards	new
Rep. Kurt Swaim	House District 94	Davis	Edwards	Edwards
Sen. Steve Warnstadt	Senate District 1	Woodbury	Obama	Kerry
Sen. Rich Olive	Senate District 5	Story	Obama	new
Sen. Bill Heckroth	Senate District 9	Bremer	Obama	new
Sen. Robert E. Dvorsky	Senate District 15	Johnson	Obama	Gephardt
Sen. Tom Rielly	Senate District 38	Mahaska	Obama	new
Sen. Joe Bolkcom	Senate District 39	Johnson	Obama	Dean
Sen. Frank Wood	Senate District 42	Scott	Obama	new
Rep. Brian Quirk	House District 15	Chickasaw	Obama	Kerry
Rep. Deborah Berry	House District 22	Black Hawk	Obama	Kerry
Rep. Pam Jochum	House District 27	Dubuque	Obama	Kerry
Rep. David Jacoby	House District 30	Johnson	Obama	Kerry
Rep. Tyler Olson	House District 38	Linn	Obama	new
Rep. Mark Smith	House District 43	Marshall	Obama	Kerry
Rep. Donovan Olson	House District 48	Boone	Obama	Kerry
Rep. Helen Miller	House District 49	Webster	ObamaGephardt
Rep. Janet Petersen	House District 64	Polk	Obama	Kerry
Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad	House District 66	Polk	Obama	new
Rep. Elesha Gayman	House District 84	Scott	Obama	new
Rep. Wayne Ford	House District 65	Polk	Obama	Edwards
Rep. Paul Shomshor	House District 100	Pottawattamie	Obama	Lieberman
Rep. Marcella Frevert	House District 7	Palo Alto	Richardson	Dean
Sen. John P. "Jack" Kibbie	Senate District 4	Palo Alto		Kerry
Sen. Amanda Ragan	Senate District 7	Cerro Gordo		none
Sen. Brian Schoenjahn	Senate District 12	Fayette		new
Sen. Matt McCoy	Senate District 31	Polk		Kerry
Sen. Jack Hatch	Senate District 33	Polk		Kerry
Sen. Thomas G. Courtney	Senate District 44	Des Moines		Gephardt
Sen. Michael E. Gronstal	Senate District 50	Pottawattamie		none
Rep. Dolores Mertz	House District 8	Kossuth		none
Rep. Tom Schueller	House District 25	Jackson		new
Rep. Pat Murphy	House District 28	Dubuque		none
Rep. Jo Oldson	House District 61	Polk		Kerry
Rep. Rick Olson	House District 68	Polk		new
Rep. Mark Davitt	House District 74	Warren		Kerry
Rep. Philip L. Wise	House District 92	Lee		Lieberman

]]> http://iowaindependent.com/1704/wayne-ford-endorsement-gives-obama-legislative-lead/feed 2 http://iowaindependent.com/1271/campaigning-for-clinton-in-carroll-vilsack-seeks-to-return-favor http://iowaindependent.com/1271/campaigning-for-clinton-in-carroll-vilsack-seeks-to-return-favor#comments Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:00:23 +0000 Douglas Burns http://iowaindependent.com/1271/campaigning-for-clinton-in-carroll-vilsack-seeks-to-return-favor

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack Thursday helped formally open Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign office in Carroll with about two dozen Democrats, most of them supporters of the New York senator.

“The senator is by far in my view the most experienced person running for office,” Vilsack told Iowa Independent and the La Prensa newspaper before the event. “Having been in the White House for eight years she knows precisely the challenges this country faces and how to get about fixing them.”

In the hour-long campaign stop at Clinton’s office at 514 N. Court Street (the McNabb Building), Vilsack’s intention was to stoke the base as most there clearly were sold on Clinton’s credentials.

“It’s 2 for 1,” said former State Rep. Rep. Jim Drees of Manning. “You can’t beat experience. She’ll be good.”

Like Drees, veteran agri-businessman and long-time St. Anthony Regional Hospital board member and advocate Urban Knobbe of Carroll sees Clinton’s candidacy as something of double-team venture.

“I think she’s the best candidate,” Knobbe said. “Two for one is good odds.”

In the newspaper interview, Vilsack, who served as Iowa’s governor from 1999 until January, said Clinton is the best-prepared to elevate America’s stature in the world. Having visited 82 different countries, she can hit the ground running with foreign policy, he said.

“Because of her travels around the world as a senator and first lady, there is a great deal of confidence in her ability to restore America’s place in the world,” Vilsack said. “She says often that the day after she’s elected she intends to send people of great respect, including her husband, around the world to various parts of the world to suggest the days of cowboy diplomacy, which has been the hallmark of this current administration, are over. And I think that will do a lot to send a message to the world.”

Vilsack has said he’d go “to Hell and back” for Clinton. The reason: personal loyalty, said the former governor, who shocked many Iowans with his ascendency from a little known state senator to Terrace Hill resident.

“She was only one of a couple of people nationally who paid any attention to my race (for governor),” Vilsack said. “She was there for me and I want to be there for her.”

In his race against former Congresman Jim Ross Lightfoot, Vilsack, who started with a gulf of a disadvantage in name recognition, found himself down more than 20 points in the polls a month before the November 1998 election, Vilsack recalled Thursday.

But as he picked up ground in the polls Hillary Clinton noticed.

In the days leading up to that election, Hillary Clinton could have made a strong case to stump for candidates elsewhere, but she came to Iowa, Vilsack said.

Clinton has said that if elected she is interested in having both former Gov. Vilsack and his wife, Christie, serve in her administration. Vilsack said there have been no discussions about what role Iowa’s former first couple would play in Washington.

“It is way premature and her focus needs to be and is on securing the nomination, which starts by doing well in Iowa,” Vilsack said.

Iowa Independent also questioned Vilsack on his strongly worded remarks about Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City.

Speaking during a television interview recently, Vilsack, Clinton’s campaign co-chairman in Iowa, raised the issue of Giuliani’s three marriages. Vilsack went further, getting into speculation about the relationship the former New York mayor has with his children.

“I can’t even get into the number of marriages and the fact that his children – the relationship he has with his children – and what kind of circumstances New York was in before September 11,” Vilsack said during an interview on NY1.
“There are lot of issues involving Mayor Giuliani. … He’s got a very interesting past.”

Vilsack’s comment came months after another one-time resident of Terrace Hill — the Iowa governor’s mansion — told the Carroll Daily Times Herald that Giuliani faced some challenges where his personal life intersects with politics. In that article, former governor Terry Branstad, a Republican, said Giuliani had “baggage” from his personal life.

Vilsack said it is important to consider context.

“It wasn’t a question of judging other people’s families,” Vilsack said. “It was put in the context if Mayor Giuliani were the Republican to Senator Clinton, would Senator Clinton be at a disadvantage. You have to understand the context. Having said that, I think it would have been better for me, and wiser for me, to have prefaced my answer by starting where I ended, which is that this isn’t really what this election should be about.”

In the letter, dated Sept. 5 and obtained by Iowa Independent, Maher stresses his strong support of the federal Fruits and Vegetables program for schools — one that Harkin helped start and recently promoted with a visit to schools in Carroll and other places in Iowa.

Maher also takes on the long-standing regime of farm subsidies.

“About 75 percent of food production subsidies are for feed crops or for the direct production of meat and dairy products,” Maher writes. “And by heavily subsidizing feed crop farmers, Congress is ultimately financing burgers, bacon, butter and cheese — high fat, cholesterol-laden foods that clog our school lunch lines.”

Maher, the host of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” refers to the farm bill as “America’s National Food Bill.”

While Harkin is unlikely to side with Maher in his attacks on grain farmers (the senator’s base for 30 years), the committee chairman, who recently criticized movie studios for promoting junk food in films aimed at kids, has indicated his desire to use the farm bill to get healthier foods in schools.

A columnist for Bloomberg.com has dubbed our junior senator as "Tom Harkin (D-Pork)." Read the Bloomberg columnist's screed here. And on the subject of the 2007 farm bill, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns makes his case on the Bush administration's views for the bill here.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently held its first-ever conference with agricultural leaders, and is planning to form an independent federal advisory board to deal with ag issues. Wallaces Farmer is reporting that one of the topics discussed at the conference involved how the EPA can improve its relationship with ag producers and get them more involved with environmental protection.

The Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers is organizing a series of cattle feedlot tours. The tours are designed to provide farmers with information on growing their operations responsibly and successfully.

In the last two decades, the number of farm operators in the United States under age 35 dropped from 16 percent to 6 percent, as noted in this article in BusinessWeek.

Chefs in fancy restaurants are requesting fattier pork. The Des Moines Register reported this week that the demand is growing on the East and West coasts for juicy pork, a move away from the lean and dry pork that has been popular for years.

After sitting idle for nearly three years, the Iowa Quality Beef Supply packing plant in Tama may soon be sold. The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reported this week that investors from the Middle East nation of Qatar may be interested in purchasing the packing plant.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is having a big gathering next week in Colorado, where they will discuss environmental policy issues affecting cattle operations. The 2007 Cattle Industry Summer Conference will be held from July 16 to July 20 in Denver.