GOP House Members Send Obama Letter Asking Him To Reinstate 'Conscience' Rule
House GOP members on Tuesday sent a letter to President Obama praising him for saying that he wants to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion" during his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame last weekend, The Hill reports. The Republican lawmakers -- Reps. James Sensenbrenner (Wis.), Chris Smith (N.J.) and John Fleming (La.) -- said Obama"s speech indicated to them that he would reinstate the HHS provider "conscience" rule, which expanded the ability of health workers to refuse to provide services or information they objected to on moral or religious grounds and prohibited federal funding for health entities that do not comply.In March, Obama began the process for rescinding the Bush-era rule, and it is currently undergoing a White House review. In the letter, the representatives said that they "agree with [Obama] that pro-life health care providers should have the right to refuse to participate in procedures that they find morally reprehensible." Smith said he has "renewed hope, hopefully not false" that Obama will "completely forgo the rescinding of this rule" after his remarks during Sunday"s speech (Hooper, The Hill, 5/19).
Mental Health
Baptist Conference Addresses HIV/AIDS In Black Community
Fear, religious beliefs and cultural differences are among the reasons why blacks do not get tested for HIV, participants of the National Baptist Convention USA"s annual Congress of Christian Education conference being held in Detroit, said on Monday, the Detroit Free Press reports. As part of the five-day conference, religious leaders discussed ways to address the high rates of HIV and AIDS among the black community. Participants also said that concerns of racism by medical professionals may be a reason why blacks do not get tested. Simone Phillips of the St. Louis chapter of the American Red Cross said, "A lot of people are leery" in the black community and "we [need] to get rid of the stigma" surrounding HIV/AIDS (Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, 6/23). This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.Team Building Brisbane commented:
Thank you. This is a very informative and helpful article. Appreciate the conference information and work of the writer. Great piece of work.
25.04.2012