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Florida Moves To Increase Health Insurance For Children

Capitol News Service reports that an estimated 50,000 additional uninsured children may receive medical coverage from legislation that Gov. Charlie Crist signed Tuesday. "The Kid Care program offers low cost insurance to children up to ages 19. But penalties and a lengthy application process have kept thousand of families out," Capitol News Service reports. "The legislation shortens the waiting time to enroll in the state"s Kid Care program and lessens the penalties for missing a premium payment." Children"s advocates have been pushing for the legislation for three years and call it a good start. The program enrolls 1.5 million children, but a lack of advertising money has hindered its ability to "spread the word" further (Ray, 6/2).

Antiabortion-Rights Groups Push For State-Level Restrictions On Access

The Washington Post on Monday examined how antiabortion-rights advocates are pressing state legislatures to approve measures designed to restrict access to abortion and compel women seeking the procedure to reconsider. The Post reports that the election of President Obama, who supports abortion rights, and the Democratic majority in Congress have made it less likely that there will be new federal restrictions on abortion or an overturning of Roe v. Wade. In response, antiabortion-rights groups have pushed to enact more state-level restrictions, such as parental consent for minors and waiting periods. According to the Post, state legislatures in 2008 considered around 400 measures to restrict abortion. Gretchen Borchelt, senior counsel at the National Women"s Law Center, said, "The states are the battlegrounds and certainly the testing grounds of new kinds of restrictions." She added, "State legislatures can be more creative in what they"re trying to push and see what works."The restrictions -- known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, or TRAP laws -- include measures such as requiring a woman to visit a clinic twice at least 24 hours apart before obtaining an abortion, severely limiting public funding for abortion, mandating consent from both parents or a judge"s signature before minors can obtain abortions and requiring that women view ultrasounds before abortion procedures. The ultrasound laws are aimed at making women reconsider the decision to have an abortion, while the waiting period laws "have the added effect of raising the obstacles and the costs," particularly for low-income and working-class women, who are most likely to have unintended pregnancies, the Post reports.Terri Herring, head of Mississippi"s Pro-Life America Network, said, "We tried every which way, and we were successful in the state way." She added, "All-or-nothing means nothing. Incremental means something." Herring"s next goal is enacting a law in Mississippi requiring clinic staffers to report the identities of the sexual partners of minors. The Post reports that Mississippi, which has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, has become a model for antiabortion-rights groups in other states. According to Herring, the "greater goal, even in legislation, is to influence the culture." Felicia Brown-Williams, a Planned Parenthood staffer in Mississippi, said, "We"ve got a glut of bills we fight every year. We spend the first two months in sheer and utter panic that one of these bills is going to get past us" (Slevin, Washington Post, 6/8).