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Tiller's Patients, Not Critics, Should Be Ones To 'Define His Memory,' Opinion Piece Says
In a "portrayal that defied logic," George Tiller -- the Kansas abortion provider who was murdered last month -- has been depicted "on Web sites, TV and radio talk shows and in legislative hearings as the reckless "abortionist," willing to euthanize babies close to birth just so the mother could fit into a prom dress or attend a rock concert," Barbara Shelly, a member of the Kansas City Star editorial board, writes in a Star opinion piece. She asks, "Would someone in the third trimester of pregnancy travel to the heart of Kansas and pay a $6,000 fee just to fit into a size six party dress?" Shelly adds that the "overwhelming majority of the 250 to 300 women a year" that sought abortions from Tiller in the second and third trimesters had planned their pregnancies. She profiles a Missouri college professor, pregnant with twins, who traveled to Tiller"s clinic with her husband to obtain an abortion after an amniocentesis revealed that neither fetus would survive and that she faced potentially life-threatening complications if the pregnancy continued. Shelly writes that the woman and others like her went to Tiller "heartbroken and afraid, carrying fetuses with malfunctioning kidneys, missing organs and syndromes certain to cause death in the womb or soon after birth." A smaller number were survivors of rape and incest, including young girls, according to Shelly. The "prom queen who talked her way into a late-term abortion" is a "creation of Tiller"s enemies," Shelly writes, concluding that the "real people" affected by his death are the "thousands who wrote the notes that now serve as a memorial wall to a fallen physician. They are the ones who should define his memory" (Shelly, Kansas City Star, 6/9).

Co-Operative Public Plan Offers Hope For Bipartisan Bill
A plan to pool the ownership of health insurance into cooperatives owned by groups of residents and small businesses is attracting renewed hopes that a bipartisan public plan bill will pass Congress with wide support, The Associated Press reports.
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Recession Stressful For Many Kids, Toughest On Poor And Uninsured
As the economy continues to falter, a poll released today shows that parents must make harder choices about how to spend what money they have, and children -- especially those who are uninsured or who are among the lowest income bracket -- are more at risk because of it.
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Climate Change, Hunger, Economy G8 Summit Top Priorities; France's First Lady Calls On G8 To Expand On Global Health 'Achievements'

President Barack Obama joined world leaders in Italy on Wednesday for "three days of intense talks on threats to global security and stability" at a G8 summit "where climate change, the continuing global economy crisis and world hunger got top billing," AP/Google.com reports (Babington, 7/8). Ahead of the G8 meeting, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, published an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper, which describes "the progress that has been made by the G8 leaders in tackling HIV and AIDS in Africa" and calls on them "to build on their achievements," the Telegraph reports (7/8). AFP/Yahoo! News also reported on Bruni-Sarkozy"s message. The French first lady is a global ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (7/7). In the Guardian, Bruni-Sarkozy, applauds the G8"s 2001 establishment of the Global Fund, which has "enabled over half a million mothers to avoid transmitting HIV to their children" and provided "[m]illions" of AIDS orphans with "food, education and social support through programmes backed by the Global Fund," she writes, adding that this "revolution is beginning to transform Africa." However, "much of the progress made in reducing poverty over the past decades is under threat from the effects of the global economic crisis," according to Bruni-Sarkozy. "We have made inspiring and dramatic progress, but this journey has just begun," she writes, suggesting that G8 leaders "celebrate their achievements by expanding their investment in saving lives and reducing inequities. It is not only possible - it is happening, it works, and there is much more still to do," she concludes (Bruni-Sarkozy, 7/7). Prior to the start of the summit, a coalition of groups, including Greenpeace, Water Aid and End Water Poverty, issued a call to G8 leaders to "tackle global water and sanitation issues, especially those in developing countries," Water Tech Online reports. Oliver Cumming of Water Aid said, "Water and sanitation underpin all development efforts. Without access to safe water and sanitation, other decisions that the G8 make will be severely threatened" (7/7). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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