Kansas Bill Would Stop Mental Health Exception for Late-Term Abortion

With Brownback as governor, Kansas lawmakers move to limit abortion
Topeka — Emboldened Conservatives in the Kansas Legislature didn’t wait long to push plans to restrict Abortion. They’re also pitching a bill to Repeal a law allowing in-state College Tuition for the Children of Illegal Immigrants. And the session is only in its third day. Republican lawmakers expect this to be a banner year for Legislation on abortion, Immigration, Gun Rights and other top conservative causes. The GOP holds a commanding majority in the Legislature and a close...

2010 State Legislative Wrap Up
This year, the debate over Abortion in federal Health Care reform was a major impetus for aggressive efforts in the states to restrict Abortion access. In March, Congress passed and the President signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which requires the establishment of state Insurance exchanges by 2014. A provision commonly referred to as the “Nelson Amendment” after its sponsor, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), restricts the means by which insurers can offer insura...

Charity to challenge abortion law
Women having an early medical Abortion should be allowed to take some of their pills at home, a charity says. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is seeking a change in the law so women can choose where they complete their treatment. Women currently have to make two visits and are given pills each time. The Department of Health opposes the change, which would bring England, Scotland and Wales into line with countries including Sweden and France. Early medical abortions involve taking t...

Abortion rule to be challenged in high court
Anne Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service argues the UK is out of line with other countries. Photograph: Bwp Media/Getty Images The Department of Health is today accused of allowing political considerations to prevail over the wellbeing of women who need an Abortion in early pregnancy, by refusing to allow them to take the necessary pills in the comfort and security of their own home. Britain's leading charitable Abortion provider will challenge the government in the High Court t...

U.K. abortion rules face legal challenge
LONDON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A British Abortion charity says it will take the U.K. government to court over its rules on medical Abortion in early Pregnancy. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which provides 17,500 pill-based "medical abortions" a year, says the Department of Health is putting political considerations ahead of the well-being of women seeking an Abortion in early pregnancy by refusing to allow them to take the necessary pills in the comfort and security of their own home, The Gu...

Pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for potentially life-saving drugs
If those drugs are possibly being given to women who have had Abortions. A nurse practitioner at an Idaho Planned Parenthood called a local Walgreen’s pharmacy to fill a prescription for Methergine, a medicine used to prevent or control bleeding of the uterus following Childbirth or an abortion. The pharmacists refused to fill the prescription unless the nurse told her whether or not the patient had an abortion. Because of patient confidentiality laws, the nurse refused to disclose that in...

Poll: Tucson Shooting Wasn't Political
PHOENIX - A Mass Shooting that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords gravely wounded has the nation wondering, why? Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik spoke out about the rampage on Saturday, saying it grew from extreme political Rhetoric, Bigotry and hatred, especially in his home state of Arizona. That statement ignited a firestorm of statements from politicians and Law Enforcements, who said there was no evidence to suggest politics played a role and that it was too soon to make...

Poll: Tucson Shooting Wasn't Political
PHOENIX - A Mass Shooting that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords gravely wounded has the nation wondering, why? Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik spoke out about the rampage on Saturday, saying it grew from extreme political Rhetoric, Bigotry and hatred, especially in his home state of Arizona. That statement ignited a firestorm of statements from politicians and Law Enforcements, who said there was no evidence to suggest politics played a role and that it was too soon to make...

Ann Coulter's Justifications for Murder
It is tragic that it took the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the Murder and wounding of 18 others to bring home to most of us the horror of years of rightwing violence, threats of violence, and public Murder fantasies. While the actual views of alleged shooter Jared Loughner are hazy, and whether far rightwing influences on his thinking played any role in his motives for the shooting remains to be seen, we find ourselves nevertheless talking about the climate of hate a...

Time for 'If You See Something, Say Something' to Apply to Mental Health, Too
Many years ago before the deinstitutionalization of the nation’s mental Hospitals, the Secret Service would visit the psychiatric facilities to find out if patients posed a threat to the President or any other elected officials.  In the mid-1970’s most states responding to Court Cases by incarcerated patients began the process of closing mental hospitals and returning patients to the communities so they could be in the “least restrictive” alternative. -- The safe hav...

Tucson Tragedy Will Happen Again if We Aren't Serious About Mental Health
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords didn't know she had a stalker, though she knew that she was being threatened after her Tucson congressional office was vandalized in the wake of her vote in favor of Health Care reform. She didn't know that several people had expressed concern about the mental stability of her constituent Jared Loughner, who had, according to reports, become obsessed with her to the point of writing notes about his plans to hurt her, or worse. While some people were worried about Loughner...

Mental Health Break II
Because on a day like today - after the last week - we need as many as we can find. Here's our kind of Republican: I will, of course, be live-blogging the event at 8 pm. ...

136 state mental health employees may lose jobs
A new round of Budget cuts might prompt the state to lay off 136 workers at Mental Health institutions and reduce the number of troubled Children and adults it can care for. Iowa Department of Human Services Director Charlie Krogmeier said in an e-mail to staff Wednesday that one option is to eliminate 129 beds and lay off 136 staff members at three of the four state-run Mental Health facilities. As it stands, psychiatric patients often face long delays or must travel for hours to find a menta...

How to Identify and Address Potential Mental Health Risks
In 2009, I supported Richard Aborn for District Attorney of Manhattan. I liked most of his stated policies (except the ones on Gun Control) and wrote about them often. Aborn lost to Richard Vance. In the light of Jared Loughner, who while not a teenager, is still quite young, I started thinking about Richard's policies, which laid out concrete solutions that well could make a difference. Again, I am not one of those calling for a gentler political discourse as I think the topic had little ...

OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Giffords shooting sparks mental health debate
Welcome to The Hill's evening roundup of the day's health policy news and advance look at tomorrow's schedule. Tuesday's health news Lawmaker calls for briefing on Mental Health danger signs: A leading lawmaker on Mental Health issues is calling for a Bipartisan debate on how to keep lawmakers and their staff and families safe in the wake of Saturday's deadly shooting in Tucson.  Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, along with Rep. Tim Murphy (...

State lawmaker wants to protect victims from defendants' questions
OLYMPIA — State lawmakers are revisiting Legislation that could prevent sex-crime defendants who represent themselves from directly questioning their accusers in court. The new bill was prompted by a recent incident in which a 21-year-old woman threatened to jump off the King County Courthouse rather than face questioning by the man charged with raping her when she was a child. The man was acting as his own attorney at the trial. The bill, introduced by Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, wi...

Legislative rule review could be monumental time-suck
TALLAHASSEE - Florida politicians’ campaign theme of reining in government Regulation could wind up being a breathless endeavor in the Capitol a while. State Legislators were told Wednesday morning that a bill they pushed through in special session last November requiring agencies to re-submit rules to lawmakers for approval would require the Legislature to annually ratify around 1,700 rules during the 60-day lawmaking session. And legislative experts don’t know yet whethe...

Stumbos bill would target smoking in cars with kids
Smoking in a vehicle where a child under 17 is present would be illegal under a bill filed by House Speaker Greg Stumbo. A person in a vehicle with a child could not smoke “cigars, Cigarettes or other tobacco in any form” under House Bill 216. The Legislation, which is similar to laws in four other states, would create a fine of $25 for the first offense and $50 for each subsequent offense. If the law is passed, there would be a probationary period until January 1, 2012. During that ...

Can we now talk about Mental Health?
(This issue is crucial, yet receives almost no discussion in our country. That's a tragedy. Thanks to Gretchen for bringing it to our attention! - promoted by lowkell) After the horrible shooting on Saturday, the one thing I think most of us, liberal and conservative, agree on is that the person who did the shooting had Mental Health issues. Many people reported how "disturbing" they found him to be. One community college told him he could not return without a doctor saying he was no longer a da...

Lawmaker calls for briefing on mental health danger signs
A leading lawmaker on Mental Health issues is calling for a Bipartisan debate on how to keep lawmakers and their staff and families safe in the wake of Saturday's deadly shooting in Tucson. Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus along with Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Penn.), wants the group to hold a briefing focusing on the behaviors and threats that raise red flags. "Police agencies already do that," Napolitano told The Hill. "I want to make sure some of ...

Dr. Alan Lipman: If Loughner Would Have Received Help This Would Not Have Happened (Video)
New questions arise about the Mental Health of Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner. Some medical experts say that there were signs that Loughner was a danger to himself and the public. Criminal psychologist Dr. Alan Lipman talks to Megyn Kelly on the “warning signs,” and whether someone should have noticed them. “People are now able to see based on the information that we’ve been talking about for the last 24 hours that Loughner was not an individual acting on a politi...

National Coalition of Individuals with Mental Health Conditions Calls for Reasonable Response to Arizona Tragedy
"Let's not scapegoat and stigmatize an entire group for the actions of a single individual," Fisher said. "A literature review has shown that the homicide of a stranger by a person with severe Mental Health issues occurs to 1 in 14 million persons. This is so rare that the authors concluded it was impossible to predict violence by individuals with Mental Health issues (Nielssen et al., Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2009 https://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2009/10/12/schbul.sb...

Video at noon: Basu talks with Planned Parenthood on 'Between the Lines'
Join columnist Rekha Basu with her guest Jill June, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, as they discuss how changes in the upcoming legislative session could impact Birth Control and Abortion in Iowa. ...

Former state lawmaker who pushed gunslinger bill dies at 68
FRANKFORT - Former state Rep. Raymond D. Overstreet of Liberty, known for his legislative wit and support for a Concealed Weapons law, died Sunday at Casey County Hospital. He was 68. Overstreet, a Republican who was elected to the state House in 1971 shortly before he was graduated from the University of Kentucky Law School, served until 1992. He often debated and created laws while applying them in Private Practice as a criminal defense attorney. Overstreet often used humor in the state ...

Weekly Pulse: Giffords Shooting Reveals Flaws in U.S. Mental Health Services
( - promoted by Paul Rosenberg) By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head at a constituent outreach event in a Supermarket Parking Lot in Tucson on Saturday. In all, the gunman shot 18 people, killing 6, including a Federal Judge and a 9-year-old girl. Jamelle Bouie of TAPPED urges President Obama to take up the issue of Mental Health care in his upcoming Speech on the Mass Shooting. Several people who knew the alleged shooter came forw...