Abortion battle shifts focus
The battle to repeal Roe v. Wade has essentially been over for a decade, says U.Va. sociology professor James Davison Hunter. Anti-abortion forces have largely abandoned the frontal assault aimed at outlawing abortion altogether, he said, having been repelled by the courts. “The pro-life movement has come to terms with this political reality, and having done that, they have adapted a very different strategy, one that is incremental in nature,” he said. Even abortion rights supporters are sometimes receptive to parental notification policies and efforts to ban so-called “partial birth” abortions, he said.
— New York Times, April 25

Expert: Stripping prisoners has extra impact
Forcing prisoners to strip, as American guards did in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, is more than a power play, says U.Va. religious studies professor Abdulaziz A. Sachedina. It also creates intense feelings of humiliation among Muslim people, he said. “It does create a sense of shame, showing yourself naked to other men or to women, the guards and the officers there,” he said. He notes that Islamic law, too, prohibits such treatment of prisoners.
— Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 7

Garson calls for state-level health insurance initiatives
The number of Americans without health insurance is estimated at 43.6 million, about one in every six people. “The uninsured suffer more ailments and die younger than the rest of us,” wrote Dr. Arthur “Tim” Garson, vice president and dean of U.Va.’s School of Medicine, in a recent commentary. While presidential candidates have long talked about the issue, Garson said the solution may be easier at the state level. He suggests establishing state purchasing pools, administered by public-private partnerships, as a first step.
— Wall Street Journal, May 12

Student mental health programs under siege
Student mental health centers at American universities are facing a crisis, says Russ Federman, head of counseling at U.Va.’s Elson Student Health Center. An increasing number of students are showing up with increasingly serious mental health problems, which universities must address with a finite amount of resources. “By the 11th week of a semester, all appointments are filled. But students don’t stop coming,” he said. “Counseling centers are struggling with brief crisis stabilization versus addressing fundamental issues to
effect change.”
— Psychology Today, May 13

Historian sees parallels between Iraq, Nazi Germany
The United States wins a war on foreign soil, then must figure out what to do with the enforcers of the ruthless, now-deposed regime. Sound familiar? That was 1945 in post-World War II Germany. Recently declassified records show the United States overlooked the wartime activities of some former Nazi officials for intelligence-gathering purposes, according to a new book, “U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis.” U.Va. historian Timothy Naftali, who contributed to the book, says, “We had no policies for helping Gestapo members, no disqualifiers unless the public knew about the crimes. It was kind of a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ culture.” He sees “troubling” parallels to the current situation in Iraq.
— New York Times, Washington Post, May 14