I'm a huge fan of Echidne, but this assault on the CDC's new "preconception health report" (pdf) is wrongheaded. Women -- and for that matter, men -- are already told to maintain proper nutrition, exercise regularly, resist smoking, properly treat chronic conditions, and maintain a healthy weight. That a crew of doctors, on Mother's Day, suggested that women of reproductive age do the same lest an unplanned pregnancy that they choose to keep end with a low birth weight or otherwise malformed child is no occasion for a glance at A Handmaid's Tale. And to say that "It is not really [a woman's own] health that concerns [their] physician" is a straight insult to a medical profession that is constantly and continually begging everyone of every gender to practice prevention and healthful habits. It would be one thing were this the only context in which health recommendations were offered to women, but that's not true. It's not even near truth. Here's the CDC's women's health page, which has the most prominent billing on their home page. In fact, this week is Women's Health Week. It's just flat-out false that the organization is only attentive to women in their capacity as breeders.
Moreover, the doctors are right. I have more than a couple friends with active sex lives and a prescription for birth control who nonetheless would carry a pregnancy to term were they to accidentally conceive. Few of them realize, though, that certain current behaviors could hurt a potential child, even if they ceased after the first ultrasound. Given their attitude towards an unplanned pregnancy, they should know if their behaviors are making such an event riskier than it would otherwise be. And given the serious horrors that low birth weight babies go through for their entire lives (not to mention the massive sums they cost the parents), women should know that harm can occur between conception and realization, if for no other reason than it affords them more reason to be cautious and more information on whether to keep a pregnancy.
That said, Echidne argues, correctly, that if the government really wants to help women and their children, they should be extending health coverage. I take a backseat to absolutely no one in my pursuit of expanded access, but this report came from the CDC -- they have absolutely no power or influence on insurance issues. It's like wondering why they didn't call for a full employment policy at the Federal Reserve. Even so, Echidne should have read the report (I get the feeling she only read WaPo's coverage of it). One of the the ten recommendations is, and I quote the header here, "Health Insurance Coverage For Women With Low Incomes."
