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.”

“I was his campaign manager,” Sokolowski said. “We were both qualified, so we ran the campaign as a partnership. Although, at that time, he was the official candidate. When he lost, we both just looked at each other and we knew this wasn’t over.”

The Sokolowski couple knew it wasn’t over because there was still a great deal of work to do if they were going to capture their primary goals of educating on rural affairs and advocating for northwest Iowa.

“I’ve spent pretty much my entire life farming in Cherokee County,” Sokolowski said. “I grew up on a farm, and my husband and I started farming together in 1976. I also began my own livestock business in 1983. We’ve been able to ride out the storms of the 1980s and 1990s.”

The farming crisis and the following commodity pricing concerns led Sokolowski to become more and more active in terms of shaping national and state agriculture policies.

“It was at least 10 years ago that I traveled to Des Moines to advocate for independent pork producers. We’re members of the Iowa Pork Producers and Iowa Farm Bureau and had concerns at that time as to how independent pork producers were going to survive,” she said. “I spoke with many agricultural organizations — the Iowa Farmers Union being one of them. After I learned more, I ended up joining the IFU and deciding I was going to be a northwestern Iowa advocate for rural issues.”

She organized and founded the Siouxland Chapter of the Iowa Farmers Union (IFU) in 2001 and has since received several National Farmers Union leadership awards. She became an IFU board member and was appointed to the legislative and membership committees, educating legislators in a bipartisan fashion and advocating for rural issues.

“I’ve covered a lot of legislation,” she said with a quick laugh. “I’ve worked on agricultural to environmental issues, from renewable energy to trade policy. I’ve worked on two farm bills. I’ve advocated for rural health care. It was the legislators in Des Moines who have always encouraged me to become more politically involved.”

In addition to the 2002 and 2007 farm bills, Sokolowski addressed the Rural Development Title, Farm and Nutrition Program. She participated in a coalition of agricultural organizations supporting a competition title and conservation security program. She has also advocated reforming anti-trust laws, and accepting fair international trade agreements. She contributed to a USDA feasibility study within a 100-mile radius of Sioux City to sell processed meat and fish produce in institutions. That study was expanded to help start the farmers market in Sioux City.

Amber, an 18-year-old high school senior in Cedar Rapids, walked silently down the side of the street for several minutes, chewing on her lower lip and pondering a way to describe how being a young person with a mental illness feels. When she suddenly stopped, it was to point to a collection of ice-encrusted rocks at the edge of a puddle.

“You want to know what it feels like?” she asked while bending down to feel the ice with her fingertips. “It feels like you are frozen in cold, cloudy ice. You sort of see what’s going on around you, but not clearly. You don’t really hear anything. You are separate from everyone else — alone.”

Amber, who is being treated for bipolar disorder, took two steps away from the icy rocks before turning back. She quickly raised her foot so the heel of her boot could deliver a blow to the ice, freeing the rocks.

“What we need most of all is someone willing to break the ice,” she said.

Kathy Dorff, project coordinator for Support a Friend Iowa, said bringing support to young adults with mental illness is the primary goal of a newly launched website by the Iowa Department of Human Services.

“The Web site is basically the cornerstone for an overall campaign — the Iowa Campaign for Mental Health Recovery,” Dorff said. “We developed the site as the cornerstone piece of this particular project because the target audience for the message is young adults, 18 to 25. We know that the Internet seems to be one of the best ways to reach people in that age group.”

Site visitors can find explanations of mental disorders that frequently impact young adults, a forum to exchange messages, suggestions on how to begin a conversation and a list of resources.

“Statistics show that young adults, 18 to 25, have a greater likelihood than the general population to suffer from mental illness, but they are also less likely to seek assistance or help for it,” Dorff said. “This is a time in life when a lot of young people are just entering their own lives. They are basically either in college or beginning life outside of school. There are a lot of new decisions and perhaps stresses that they are facing. It’s a particularly good time to make sure that young adults are staying healthy and on track.”

According to information on the site, 27 percent of young adults have diagnosable forms of mental illness. Due to associated stigmas, many do not seek treatment. One the resources available is a list of possible red flags for mental disorders so friends can help motivate friends to talk and seek treatment.

“The main thing we want to do is get the word out to young people that if they, someone in their family or their friend suffers from mental illness, they are not alone,” Dorff said. “They should seek help. They should be a friend to the person with a mental illness. There isn’t a stigma associated with a mental illness, any more so than there is one for people who suffer from diabetes or heart disease.”

In addition to the Web presence, the awareness campaign will also be developing informational brochures and flyers to be distributed at campus health centers and to resident assistants at university dormitories. Although the project has not yet utilized social-networking sites, Dorff says she anticipates that it will in the future.

“We are willing to explore many avenues in order to distribute this message,” she said. “It’s important for young Iowans to know they aren’t alone and to know that they should support a friend with a mental illness just as they would support a friend with any other illness.”

The Iowa campaign is in coordination with the national What a Difference a Friend Makes campaign, created by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) in partnership with the National Ad Council. The Iowa project, as well as projects in many other states, operates with a SAMHSA grant.

Courtney Greene, press secretary for Gov. Chet Culver, said the decision has been made and federal monies will continue to be refused unless changes are made to the program. Iowa currently receives roughly $319,000 in matching funds from the federal funding stream.

FutureNet, an Iowa network for adolescent pregnancy prevention, parenting and sexual health, held a policy briefing Thursday morning that took aim at the abstinence-only funding. Today, Rhonda Chittenden, executive director of the organization, applauded Culver’s decision to dismiss the funds.

The funding received by Iowa is administered by the Iowa Department of Public Health. Title V abstinence-only funds required states to provide three dollars (or the equivalent in services) for every four federal dollars received. In addition to disseminating the funds to regional groups, the IDPH also conducted a statewide campaign dubbed “I am” or Iowa’s Abstinence Mission. At least one of the program’s outreach efforts — a billboard featuring a pregnant woman without a wedding ring and the words “Wait for the bling” — drew the ire of both feminist and comprehensive sex education advocates.

IDPH has provided Title V funds to eight Iowa organizations. The awards for fiscal year 2006 are as follows:

• Allen Memorial Hospital (Women’s Health Department), $31,149
• Bethany Christian Services of Northwest Iowa, $48,114
• Community Opportunities, Inc. (doing business as New Opportunities, Inc.), $15,052
• The Crittenton Center, $10,214
• North Iowa Community Action Organization, $25,491
• University of Iowa, $45,000
• Webster County Health Department, $14,525
• Young Parents Network, $23,371

In addition to the Title V abstinence-only funds, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States reports that two Iowa organizations receive Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) non-matching grants. Bethany Christian Services was announced as a recipient of a $600,000 grant last fall. Sexual Health Education, Inc. (doing business as Equipping Youth) also has received a $600,000 grant. Since this federal funding stream is not administered by the state, today’s decision by Culver will not impact these two programs.

Rep. Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, sponsored and floor managed a bill during the 2007 session that required all sexual education taught in accredited Iowa schools to be medically- and scientifically-based. Signed into law last spring, the bill did not necessarily put an end to abstinence-only sex education teaching in Iowa, but it did ratify standards and guidelines that directly conflict with those associated with federal funding streams.

“There’s been discussion on whether or not we should be accepting these federal monies at all because the criteria for abstinence-only programs at the federal level is not medically accurate,” said Mascher, who is sponsoring Thursday’s policy briefing. “The standards that [organizations] have to abide by for the federal money do not call for scientifically-based information. In essence, [the guideline conflicts] would prevent schools from getting those monies. They could still teach abstinence-only sexual education, but they can’t use the federal dollars in order to do it.”

Representatives from FutureNet, the Iowa Network for adolescent pregnancy prevention, parenting and sexual health, are scheduled to speak at the briefing and to call for the complete refusal of Title V abstinence-only education funding. Iowa currently receives roughly $319,000 from the program, which is administered by the Iowa Department of Public Health. Prior to Bethany Christian Services of Northwest Iowa being awarded a $600,000 non-matching grant last September from the Administration of Children, Youth and Families (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), the Title V monies were the only such federal abstinence education funding in the state. Nationally, Title V provides more than $40 million a year in matching funds to states.

“Iowa must end this poor fiscal and public health policy now,” said Rhonda Chittenden, executive director of FutureNet. “There is no reliable evidence to date that these abstinence-only programs impact the long-term behavioral outcomes at which they aim, such as the delay of sexual initiation and reduction of adolescent pregnancies and STI/HIV infections.”

Chittenden’s sentiments regarding abstinence-only education were echoed by Mascher.

“I’ve been a classroom teacher for the last 30 years,” Mascher said. “I taught sex education programs in the Iowa City School District for most of those years. One of the things that I think is critical in anything that we do with kids is being honest and accurate. If we expect to have credibility, I think it is extremely important that information we give them be scientifically and medically accurate.

“It comes down to best teaching practices. We know that scare tactics don’t work with young kids and that, if anything, it has a very limited kind of effect. What you want to do is give them good information, and be able to help them with decision-making skills. Those are the problem-solving skills that we want kids to be able to develop at an early age so that when they get to the age where they are making those kinds of choices, they’re making good choices. Of course, we would like all kids to be abstinent until they are ready and mature enough to be able to handle those types of relationships.”

Doug Kirby, an adolescent health researcher commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, will present his findings on the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs versus comprehensive sex education in reducing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in adolescent populations. Of the 48 programs included in his study, the only programs that had strong evidence for delaying sexual initiation were comprehensive programs.

“We know that a lot of the programs that are out there are very much religious based and may not have a scientific base to them,” Mascher said. “That leads to doubts on whether the information is accurate, and whether it will withstand the test of time in terms of helping kids make good choices. We examined a lot of curriculum and found that some of them are using scare tactics. Some of them are using outdated information. Things are changing so rapidly in the medical world and I think one of the things we want is to be able to give the best information possible and the most current.”

Rep. Tom Latham has announced plans to hold a series of roundtable discussions throughout the state with nursing professionals, visiting nurses and hospitals, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center. He also plans to work on an information talk show about the crisis. The information gathered, he said, will be taken back to Washington in order to “make sure that Iowa’s nurses and Iowa patients are represented in Congress.”

The 4th District Republican says that the lack of nurses in Iowa is only a symptom and not the core problem.

“America’s nursing schools are working as hard as they can to certify registered nurses, nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses,” he said. “[They are working] so hard, in fact, they don’t have any more room. They can’t cram any more nursing students into their programs even though they want to. There is no more space. There are no more qualified teachers. In our nation’s nursing crisis, this is the root of the problem. This is what needs to be addressed.”

Last year more than 118,000 nursing jobs nationwide remained open. According to Latham, nursing schools throughout the nation turned away more than 40,000 applicants last year due to lack of classroom space. The Iowa Department of Public Health reports that Iowa’s nursing shortage stands at just over 8 percent. That statistic, Latham said, is expected to rise to 27 percent in just over a decade.

“In light of all the health care talk coming out of Washington these days — socialized medicine, malpractice lawsuits, health insurance — it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the greatest support structure of America’s health care system is damaged and about to head into a tailspin if we don’t act now,” he said.

Exact details on Latham’s upcoming meetings with Iowa health care workers and providers have not yet been announced. The state task force is chaired by Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, a former nurse, and is scheduled to provide both short-term steps and extended goals to state lawmakers in early March.

In May 2004, nurse Kim Wyatt was working in the neuroscience unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. She was attending a patient who suffered from a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a brain condition that made the patient susceptible to light and noise, even to the point of ruptured aneurysms resulting in paralysis or death.

A patient in an adjacent room awaited brain surgery for removal of a tumor from his frontal lobe. The patient, who also suffered from a myriad of health conditions, including bouts of dementia, often resisted invasive medical procedures.

On the morning of the incident, two other nurses and a nursing assistant were attempting to provide the patient in the adjacent room with an IV. The patient resisted and began screaming. Wyatt and another nurse responded, finding four staff members trying to restrain the patient. In what was later found to be an effort to protect the patient in the next room, Wyatt placed a pillow over the distraught patient’s mouth, below his nose. When a nurse in the room objected twice, the pillow was removed and there was no sign that the action caused the patient physical or respiratory distress. The patient had no memory of the incident; however, another treating nurse filed a report with supervisors against Wyatt the following morning.

Although supervising staff at the hospital found no instance of adult abuse and Wyatt subsequently received a favorable performance review, hospital administration filed a report with the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals (DIA) as a possible instance of dependent adult abuse. A DIA investigation determined Wyatt had committed dependent adult abuse by punishing and assaulting the patient and the agency gave Wyatt’s name to the Department of Human Services for placement on the dependent adult abuse registry. Wyatt appealed the decision within the state agency.

The decision against Wyatt was initially reversed by an administrative law judge who stated that Wyatt was not trying to “hurt, punish, harm, cause fear or offensively contact” the patient when she placed the pillow over his mouth. The conclusion was that Wyatt acted in the best interest of the patient she was attending, a patient that could have been caused undue harm by the other patient’s screaming. The director of the Health Facilities Division of DIA, however, rejected such assertions of justification and concluded that “several options” could have been considered and/or implemented by Wyatt.

Wyatt then took the case to the district court, which reversed the director’s decision. DIA moved for the case to be heard in the court of appeals. The appellate court reversed the district court decision, finding that Wyatt committed an intentional assault on the patient and should be listed in the adult abuse registry.

In the opinion released this morning by Justice Brent Appel, the decision of the court of appeals was vacated and the judgment of the district court — including its order that Wyatt’s name be removed from the abuse registry — was affirmed. The court ruled that Wyatt did not have the “intent necessary to assault” the patient. That is, the court determined that Wyatt had no intention of harming the patient, only to muffle the noise for the protection of her nearby patient. Since such findings were not disputed by the agency and due to specifics within the Iowa Code in relation to abuse, according to the opinion, Wyatt did not assault the patient.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has been the brunt of some Iowa grumblings for his tendency to downplay events of “only 20 people,” including the one in South Carolina that provided the campaign’s trademark “Fired Up” chant. In Iowa, 20 or 30 people in a basement or living room is not only how presidential hopefuls have traditionally campaigned, but the way the most staunch of Iowa caucus-goers believe campaigning should be done.

The exercise in contrasts — a candidate capable of drawing thousands to an event versus traditional Iowa caucus campaigning — hasn’t been easy for the Obama or some other campaigns to manage this election season, and, much to the consternation of the national press and its appetite for political bickering, the campaign hammered out another of their compromise events on Friday at Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids.

Following a few opening remarks about his latest white paper entitled “Barack Obama’s Plan to Reclaim the American Dream,” Obama sat at a table with five eastern Iowans — all of whom were already campaign supporters and a few of whom also served as volunteer organizers. Family and friends of those at the table were given chairs in the audience, not that they could necessarily see what was happening up front. Placed between the audience and the table with the candidate stood a rope line of no less than 20 large video cameras. Still photographers meandering here and there between them while a host of print and online journalists alternated between standing behind the camera operators and sitting at folding tables with their computers. Members of the press easily out-numbered those at the table, those in the audience and campaign staff in attendance.

“As of those of you who have been following us around know, we try to do these [roundtable discussions] at least once a week,” Obama said. “I get a chance to talk with Iowa voters… about some of the issues that have been going on in their lives. It allows me to spend time not just talking, but also listening.”

The five supporters gathered at the table provided personal stories of economic hardship. Obama listened and, on occassion, provided detail of how his plan would help.

“There’s been a lot of talk in this campaign by me about the politics of hope,” Obama said before sitting down at the table. “The politics of hope doesn’t mean hoping that things come easy. It’s the politics of believing things unseen. Believing in what this country might be and standing up for that belief — and fighting for it when it is hard.”

Difficulty and hard work is nothing new to 22-year-old Cedar Rapids college student Katherine Marcano.

“I work night shift so my days start at 1 a.m.,” she told Obama. “That’s when I get up every morning. I never go to bed before 10 p.m. because I’m raising my two siblings.”

Marcano says she is able to function on an average of three hours of sleep each night by drinking coffee and energy drinks. One of the most looming issues in her life is health care because one of the relatives she is caring for is restricted to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy and her employer’s health care plan refuses coverage.

“Right now, you just can’t pay the fees to get through the process of naturalization for her?” Obama asked and Marcano responded with a nod. “In the meantime, she is a legal resident, but because she is a legal resident, she doesn’t qualify for government benefits. So, basically, any help she needs in terms of her medical care — if she was going to get it — would have to be paid for out-of-pocket.”

Marcano agreed that this is the situation she and her family faces.

“You are doing heroic work,” Obama said. “I’m worry about you because I don’t know if you should be drinking that Red Bull all of the time. In the meantime, there are a couple things I think we should do. Number one is: I’m a strong believer that people who are legal immigrants should be getting basic health care. That is something I think is important. These are not illegal, undocumented workers. These are legal immigrants… they should get care.

“Obviously, in terms of school, helping you pay for your college education is very important.”

Springville resident Liz Loney, 36, came to speak with Obama about both the cost of education and health care.

“I’ve had extensive health care bills and been through a lot medically so I’ve personally seen what that can do to a family financially,” she said.

Loney, who has two children currently attending high school, suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2002. She was able to maintain her job following the original incident, subsequent recovery and a second surgery and recovery period, but lost her job after a third surgery.

“Then came the Social Security fight that for the past three years I’ve been fighting,” she said. “They won’t let me go back to work because they say there is too much stress. So, I’ve had to fight for Social Security disability.”

In order to obtain benefits, Loney had to hire an attorney. She has recently began to work her way through the Medicare system as well. Her 16-year-old daughter has recently started working in order to put money back for higher education.

Mary Paige, a Cedar Rapids senior citizen and insulin-dependent diabetic, came to speak to Obama about Social Security and the cost of prescription medications.

“I have several friends who are getting, I think, something like the minimum from Social Security,” she said. “That doesn’t really help you very much when it comes to paying your bills and giving you security… A lot of seniors don’t have savings because they’ve been busy raising their children, paying off their bills and their homes and so-forth.”

Paige’s thoughts and concerns about the cost of medicines for older Americans were echoed by Ruthie Polansky, a Marion senior.

“I have a lot of prescription drugs I take all the time,” Polansky said. “I raised two boys by myself from the time they were [ages] two and five. I didn’t have a lot of money to save.”

Medical bills and prescription costs became a problem in her life, she said, once she retired and there was confusion over what Medicare or her private insurance would be paying. In order to keep the bills current, she payed for them with credit cards.

“Since I’m on Social Security and a small pension, this is a big concern for me,” she said after noting that one of her medications, a bi-weekly injection, costs over $400, with 20 percent being an out-of-pocket expense.

Brian Davidson, a 35-year-old transplant into the Cedar Rapids community, was also concerned about the cost of health care and education.

“I’m in the middle of a career change,” he said and noted that he is in his third semester of one of Kirkwood’s agricultural technology programs. “A large worry of mine is how to pay for this training.”

Because Davidson is a non-traditional student who found financial success in a previous career, he doesn’t qualify for financial aid or work study programs.

“The dream that my parents fought for and their parents fought for — I’m finding it harder and harder to obtain,” he said. “I feel, at 35, that I’m so far behind. I don’t believe in keeping up with the Joneses. I’m happy with my life and I’m happy with the decisions I’ve made, but I have one more semester here and then I’m out in the real world again. Now I’ve got additional credit card debt that I’m not comfortable with, but that’s how I’ve had to finance my college — credit cards and a part-time job.”

Throughout the majority of the discussion, Obama did very little talking and spent most of his time listening. When specific aspects of his plan would directly affect the situations described by the participants, he would speak to that — always qualifying his statements with a nod to it being an aspect of the plan that he would enact, if elected.

Obama’s “American Dream” white paper calls for a middle class tax cut of up to $1,000 for working families, elimination of income tax for senior citizens making less than $50,000 a year, guaranteed paid sick days for workers, expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act, doubled funding for after-school programs, reduction of health care costs by $2,500 per family and lowered college costs of $4,000 by tax credit at time of enrollment.

Presidential candidate Chris Dodd led a round-table discussion, “Our Families, Our Future: Putting Women and Families First,” at Davenport’s Family Resources, Inc. on Monday afternoon.  Joined by his sister, Martha Buonanno, Dodd listened as social services workers and agency directors asked questions and related some of their clients’ stories.  He made previous stops at Des Moines’ House of Mercy and the Jane Boyd Community House in Cedar Rapids.

The Democratic senator from Connecticut listed many of the bills and legislation he has authored for families, women and women’s health, children, child care, child protective services and disease research.  He also touted his experience reaching across the aisle to enlist Republican lawmakers in his numerous legislative successes.

Videos from the event are available below the fold.

Dodd was also joined by long-time family friend, Eva Bunnell, who lives in Connecticut.  She said she was “happy to be here” in Iowa supporting him.  When Bunnell met Dodd in their church 20 years ago, it was his care and interest in her daughter’s condition that made her believe that Dodd, when it comes to families, “doesn’t forget, he keeps on fighting.”  Bunnell’s daughter Jacinta suffers from a rare brain disorder.

Bunnell said she was able to take care of her daughter and keep her job because of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Iowa Independent reporter Lynda Waddington has more on Dodd’s plan for women and families.  She also has a video of Eva Bunnell’s speech in Cedar Rapids.

In this video, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd says that when it comes to “valuing families” the rhetoric of many candidates “never matches the action.”  He also defines a “new patriotism” that places emphasis on issues like domestic violence, which he recalled from the discussion gets reported about 1,000 times annually in Scott County.

He later spoke of the contrast between his campaign, which brought his friend and supporter Eva Bunnell to Iowa, with other campaigns who are bringing musical acts and talk-show hosts.

After finishing his Iowa tour this week, Dodd will return to Washington, DC for legislative sessions next week.

“Sen. Clinton has stepped up to the plate, and released a plan to fight AIDS which, if enacted, will help turn the tide of the AIDS epidemic worldwide,” said Kaytee Riek, a grassroots organizer for Iowans for AIDS Action. “She joins [Sen. Barack] Obama and [former Sen. John] Edwards in calling for adequate funding and effective policies to fight AIDS at home and abroad, and today, we are praying for all other candidates — Republican and Democrat — to do the same.”

Iowans for AIDS Action had planned to target Clinton’s Davenport headquarters to bring attention to the fact that she had not yet released a comprehensive plan. Now, according to Riek, the vigil will continue in the same location, but will be held to thank the candidate — as well as Obama and Edwards — for releasing detailed plans and leading on the issue.

All three Democratic candidates are pledging to earmark $50 billion over a five-year span on global initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS. President George W. Bush and his administration have budgeted $30 billion for that same time-frame. In addition to the monetary increase, plans from the Democratic candidates differ from the current administration by not limiting prevention strategies to abstinence-only sex education.

Clinton is slated to discuss her plan today while campaigning in South Carolina. According to information provided today from the campaign, the plan not only targets global concerns but “would especially help groups in the U.S. that have seen HIV infection rates rise over the past several years, including African Americans and gay men, and address the continued risk in Latino communities and among women.”

She proposes doubling the HIV/AIDS research budget within the National Institutes of Health to $5.2 billion annually, including the U.S. contribution toward finding a vaccine. Edwards and Obama have also pledged to strengthen and expand, respectively, such research. All three candidates support federal financing for needle exchange programs. In addition, as a part of their overall health care plans, the three candidates have pledged to improve medical care and treatment for citizens living with HIV/AIDS.

The vigils planned for tonight by Iowans for AIDS Action will continue as planned and will target the campaign offices of Republican presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee.

“The AIDS crisis is a non-partisan issue, and we expect the next president to continue and expand upon the progress made during the Bush administration,” said Riek.

In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a $15 billion over five years budget to treat 2 million people with AIDS in 15 focus countries, and prevent 7 million new infections. In 2008, that program will likely receive $6 billion in funding from Congress.

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