Adding fuel to the notion that former Republican President Richard Nixon might have been the closest thing to Archie Bunker to ever occupy the White House, a new round of tapes has been released showing that embattled commander in chief was a racist, sexist and anti-Semite. Read more.

With the campus of Notre Dame University still smoldering Sunday, President Obama called on the graduates of the revered Catholic institution to rise above the bitter, seemingly irreconcilable, conflict over abortion and unite to make America a better nation. “As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate?” he asked. “How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?” Read more.

Court Pays for Abortion

A central Pennsylvania court loaned a woman $275 to have an abortion. A counselor at the court is the one who convinced a review board to foot the bill for the procedure. Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio says he’ll never send another case to the county’s Adult Drug Court if it happens again. This was the second time that the woman had become pregnant. The first time, her parents disowned her. This time, the counselor said he feared that she would relapse after 18 months of sober living if she did not have the abortion. The loan came from a fund created by a $5 weekly fee that drug court defendants pay. An anonymous donor repaid the money to the Drug Court. It was not immediately clear when the loan occurred.
Smoking Bill on Congressional Horizon
Nobody knows better than President Barack Obama how difficult it is to kick cigarettes. The longtime smoker has acknowledged how tough it’s been. But he’s been trying to make it easier for others to avoid the nicotine pitfall. Last year, while he was still in the U.S. Senate, he signed on to a bill that would have given the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco products, in hopes of mitigating their deadliness and addictiveness. A version of that bill passed in the House last year, but faced a veto from then-President Bush. It never made it to the floor for a vote in the Senate. It appears now that the measure is getting new life. “Tobacco has never been, and should never be, a partisan issue,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I believe most members of Congress share my desire to pass meaningful and truly effective tobacco legislation to reduce youth smoking.” Waxman plans to bring the bill to a committee vote today. He has expressed optimism that the bill will become law during this session of Congress. “Federal government oversight is necessary to hold the industry accountable,” Nancy Brown, head of the American Heart Association, told The Associated Press. “We hope this will lead to swift congressional action.” But some were against what they called federal interference. “I believe it’s going to gut the agency’s resources and distract it from its core mission,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute and a deputy FDA commissioner during the Bush administration.

In the wee hours of his administration, President Bush signed into law a rule giving health-care workers the right to refuse to provide certain services based on their personal, moral objections. One of the net effects of the Provider Refusal Rule was to expand the 30-year-old “conscience clause,” allowing health-care professionals to opt out of any duties related to performing abortions. Under the rule, those workers – whether they are janitors or doctors – “can refuse to provide services, information or advice to patients on subjects such as contraception, family planning, blood transfusions and even vaccine counseling if they are morally against it,” CNN reports. But the Obama administration is planning to reverse that regulation, proposed by the Bush White House in August and enacted Jan. 20 – the day Obama took office. “We recognize and understand that some providers have objections to providing abortions,” said an official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The official declined to be identified because the policy change had not been announced. “We want to ensure that current law protects them. “But we do not want to impose new limitations on services that would allow providers to refuse to provide to women and their families services like family planning and contraception that would actually help prevent the need for an abortion in the first place.”Dr. Suzanne T. Poppema, board chairwoman of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, told CNN that Obama had placed “good health care above ideological demands.” She said, “Physicians across the country were outraged when the Bush administration, in its final days, limited women’s access to reproductive health care. Hundreds of doctors protested these midnight regulations and urged President Obama to repeal them quickly. We are thrilled that President Obama took the first steps today to ensure that our patients’ health is once again protected.”

Abortion clinic protester was arrested in Oakland. A California man who wanted to intervene on behalf of Black women seeking abortions could get jail time this week. Oakland pastor Walter Hoye was charged with unlawful intimidation of visitors to a medical clinic last summer when he stood on a sidewalk with a sign that read “Jesus Loves You and Your Baby. Can We Help You?” Lawyers for Hoye say that he offers to help Black women, in particular, because they form a majority of the more than 1 million annually who get abortions in America. Though a witness testified that he used no force, the pastor will go before a judge this week to be sentenced for allegedly violating statute. Supporters are rallying behind the pastor, who they say only exercised his free speech.

White House will review GM, Chrysler plans. Two of the former “Big Three” auto companies are expected to present their business plans for restructuring and longevity today in Washington. General Motors and Chrysler execs seeking government assistance in turning around their corporations will offer formal pitches to the Obama administration. “We’re anxious to look at the plans,” says Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesman. Hindered by slow car sales and bleeding from worker layoffs, American automakers are another tender spot in the struggling economy. A boost in the form of government aid is sought by GM and Chrysler, in order to prevent the car industry from further collapsing. The companies will likely ask for billions in financial help.

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order striking down a rule that prevented American funds from aiding international family centers that provide counseling or referrals on abortion. President George W. Bush had reinstated the so-called “Mexico City policy” after President Clinton canceled the rule initiated by Ronald Reagan in 1984. The policy states that any organization receiving United States family planning funds from the Agency for International Development can’t provide abortions or President Barack Obama has signed an executive order striking down a rule that prevented American funds from aiding international family centers that provide counseling or referrals on abortion. President George W. Bush had reinstated the so-called “Mexico City policy” after President Clinton canceled the rule initiated by Ronald Reagan in 1984. The policy states that any organization receiving United States family planning funds from the Agency for International Development can’t provide abortions or abortion counseling. Obama’s reversal of the action on Friday came a day after the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Blood pressure control could save 8,000 Blacks a year. The lives of nearly 8,000 Black Americans could be saved each year if doctors could figure out a way to bring their average blood pressure down to the average level of Whites, a new study finds. The gap between the races in controlling blood pressure is well-known, but scientists say the resulting loss of life comes as a surprise. The study’s lead author says he believes action can be taken to close the gap, but there is evidence that it will take more than leveling the quality of care between Blacks and Whites. A second article in the same journal found that racial differences persist in blood pressure control in England, despite a national health system that provides equal access to care. The reasons for the racial difference have more to do with poverty and cultural habits than access to medical care, researchers say. Both can prevent people from exercising, eating healthy foods and getting in to see a good doctor. For more on controlling blood pressure, go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

Catholic leaders vow to fight Obama on abortion. The nation’s Catholic bishops are expected to issue a statement Wednesday pledging cooperation with President-elect Barack Obama on numerous social issues but vowing all-out opposition to any law or executive order he may sign advocating abortion rights. The initial draft of the bishops’ statement expressed a “desire to work with the administration” on social issues, such as immigration, economic justice and health care for the poor, highlighting that, “The Church is intent on doing good.” However, “the Church is also intent on opposing evil,” says the next line.

Women of Color have become the new faces of abortion.

Fewer White childless teens are not opting to terminate their pregnancies as much as teenagers and mothers of color in their 20s and 30s, says a new report from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. In the first comprehensive study since 1974 of demographic characteristics of women who have abortions, researchers found that the overall drop in the abortion rate has been marked by a dramatic shift – a greater decline among White women and teenagers than among Black and Hispanic and older women. “There’s been a real change in the picture of women who get abortions,” Rachel Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a private nonprofit reproductive health research organization considered to be one of the most authoritative sources on abortion trends, told The Washington Post. Jones and her colleagues looked at yearly numbers collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by periodic surveys that Guttmacher has conducted of abortion providers between 1974 and 2004. The analysis confirmed previous reports that the abortion rate fell to the lowest level since 1974, dropping 33 percent from a peak of 29 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 1980 to 20 per 1,000 in 2004. During that period, the proportion of abortions obtained by women younger than 20 dropped steadily, falling from 33 percent in 1974 to 17 percent in 2004. For those younger than 18, it fell from 15 percent of all abortions in 1974 to 6 percent in 2004. At the same time, the proportion of abortions obtained by women in their 20s increased from 50 percent to 57 percent, and the share done for women age 30 and older rose from 18 percent to 27 percent. Although abortion rates have declined among all racial and ethnic groups, large disparities persist, with Hispanic and Black women having the procedure at rates three to five times the rate of White women. In 2004, there were 10.5 abortions per 1,000 White women ages 15 to 44, compared with 28 per 1,000 Hispanic women of that age and 50 per 1,000 Black women. That translates into approximately 1 percent of White women having an abortion in 2004, compared with 3 percent of Hispanic women and 5 percent of Black women. Jones attributed that to the focus on reducing teenage pregnancy and on increasing contraceptive use. The proportion of all abortions performed for White women decreased from 45 percent in 1994 to 34 percent in 2004, while the proportion for Hispanics increased from 16 percent to 22 percent and the proportion for Black women rose from 35 percent to 37 percent.Low white blood may be tied to Black cancer survival rates. There’s a strong connection between women of African descent from the U.S. and Caribbean, who are otherwise healthy, and the prevalence of neutropenia, or low white blood count, say researchers from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at the school’s Medical Center. Neutropenia’s may affect the poor outcomes of cancer or other illnesses, reports ScienceDaily. Among women of African descent who develop a malignancy, the presence of low white blood count may explain why treatments for some diseases don’t work as well as they should, the researchers say. “The goal of our study was to learn as much as we could about the association between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), which creates a person’s unique DNA sequence, and low White blood cell counts,” said Victor, R. Grann, MD, professor of Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and study lead author. In addition to prevalence in African and Afro-Caribbean populations, about 25 percent of all Blacks in the United States, including those from other origins, are neutropenic. Women from the Dominican Republic were found to have higher median white blood counts than all other groups. In an earlier study the Columbia researchers found that low white blood count may delay or prevent the completion of appropriate chemotherapy, especially among women receiving treatment after surgery for breast and colon cancer, and could affect cancer survival. “We found that women of African descent with early-stage breast cancer had lower baseline WBC (White blood count) and longer duration of adjuvant chemotherapy than non-Hispanic White women,” said Dawn Hershman, M.D., Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Columbia University Medical Center, co-director of the Breast Cancer program of the HICCC, and senior author of the study. “Black women were more likely to miss cycles of chemotherapy and had poorer survival than White women which could be related to lower WBC among other factors.”

Vital Signs: Vital signs New abortion numbers show an alarming trend. Vital signs looks at the “why” behind the new abortion numbers. Read and comment here.

One in four are struggling with healthcare costs
When asked about the impact of recent economic changes, nearly six in 10 adults (59 percent) report having a “serious problem” with one of seven major financial issues, including one in four who cite paying for health care as a serious problem, a Kaiser Health Poll finds. Not surprisingly, with gas prices topping $4 per gallon nationally, people are most likely to cite paying for gas as a serious problem (43 percent), followed by getting a good-paying job or a raise (27 percent) and paying for health care costs (25 percent). In thinking about health care costs, voters are more troubled by their personal costs than by national health spending. Nearly half (47 percent) say they are most worried about increases in what the average American pays out-of-pocket for health care and for insurance. In comparison, two in 10 (19 percent) say they are most concerned about increases in how much the United States as a whole spends on health care. Smaller shares cite increases in spending on public health insurance programs (14 percent) or increases in what employers pay for their workers’ health insurance (10 percent).“The standard that most voters will use to gauge health reform proposals is, ‘Will it make health care more affordable for me?’ ” said Drew Altman, Kaiser’s president and CEO. Overall, nearly six in ten (59 percent) voters say that the costs should be shared across a broad insurance risk pool, while about one-third (32 percent) say that healthier people should not be asked to pay more to subsidize sicker people.

Race and abortion rear their ugly heads in Washington
Vital Signs: A group of African-American pastors, led by the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., is telling Democratic and Republican Party leaders today that they don’t want candidates to accept Planned Parenthood donations. Find out why at Vital Signs.