Spread of #Zika demands full access to full range of #reprohealth, including safe & legal abortion.

[riversedge]

Whow--she is spot on.


Cecile Richards ?@CecileRichards 24m24 minutes ago

Important read: Spread of #Zika demands full access to full range of #reprohealth, including safe & legal abortion. http://politi.co/1T4cLWV





Health Care
America's summer threat: Zika virus

If the mosquito-borne virus hits big, it could spur new acrimony over abortion, global warming and immigration.

By Arthur Allen

03/19/16 07:51 AM EDT
A jar of mosquitoes is pictured.

If the mosquito-borne virus linked to birth defects hits big — and that’s a big if — it could stir a panic like Ebola. | Getty

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If brokered conventions and third-party insurgencies aren’t enough, consider the chaos that Zika could bring to the United States this summer.

If the mosquito-borne virus linked to birth defects hits big — and that’s a big if — it could stir a panic like Ebola, set off an epidemic of finger-pointing and create new fear and acrimony over reproductive rights, global warming and immigration, all at the height of a presidential campaign.

The disease is moving northward — it’s already in Cuba and Puerto Rico, which declared a public health emergency last month and froze the price of condoms. The mosquitoes that carry Zika are well-entrenched in some southern states and expected as far north as New York City by July. No one knows how many cases of Zika we’ll get, or how many pregnancies it might disrupt.

But should Zika begin spreading in the United States, abortion rights proponents say, recent abortion regulations and restrictions could pose agonizing quandaries for pregnant women. The disorder becomes evident only in the third trimester of pregnancy, and late-term abortions are illegal in 43 states. Many states with the strictest laws lie in the mosquito belt, where Aedes aegypti — whose bite transmits Zika — is particularly plentiful.

“It’s scaring the hell out of everybody and finally making everybody worry that they might need to access legal abortion,” said R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist and professor of law at the University of Wisconsin.

Abortion rights advocates say a raft of state laws limiting access to the procedure could make women more vulnerable. The Supreme Court recently heard a challenge to a Texas measure requiring doctors performing abortions to have privileges in nearby hospitals. If upheld, the law could leave the state with a single abortion clinic. Similar laws are on the books in Alabama and Mississippi, and awaiting signatures by governors in Indiana, Florida and South Carolina.

“The obstacles the GOP has been throwing in the path of women affect those with the least ability to access family planning, and in states like mine these poor women are the most exposed to the risk of Zika virus,” said Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

Congressional Democrats are pushing GOP leadership to show concern about Zika-linked birth defects by boosting support for family planning services in Latin America and in the United States. They’ve demanded a halt to a GOP probe of fetal tissue researchers, noting that such investigations are key to unlocking how Zika damages fetal brains.

And on Friday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi demanded that Speaker Paul Ryan keep Congress in session to deal with Zika, Flint’s lead problem and the opioid crisis..............................


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/zika-virus-america-threat-220983#ixzz43YmfzWvc
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[anotherproletariat]

1. That is the first thing I thought of when I head Zika was spreading.

Maybe this virus will clarify the need for safe abortions. I hate to think of the morbidity that would lead to this change, but in the long run it might be helpful.