Think Progress

HEALTH -- 35 YEARS AFTER ROE V. WADE: Thirty-five years ago today, the Supreme Court recognized that the "right of privacy...is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." Yet even as abortion rates drop to their lowest in three decades, the issue remains in the public spotlight. NPR reports today that at least half a dozen states "are pursuing constitutional amendments called human life amendments that would grant legal status and rights to an embryo." A Colorado ballot initiative, if passed, would define a "person" to "include any human being from the moment of fertilization." As U.C. Davis School of Law Professor Lisa Ikemoto points out, "the Colorado initiative would provide a legal base for challenging access to abortion, contraceptives that prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, in vitro fertilization, and human embryonic stem cell research." As Jessica Arons, Director of the Women's Health and Rights program at the Center for American Progress points out, the Roe decision and the conservative push for a human life amendment both leave open difficult questions about fertility treatments, egg donation, and prenatal genetic screening. Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America is letting women blog on why they vote pro-choice. Read those posts here. 

ETHICS -- INVESTIGATION OVER FIRED U.S. ATTORNEYS DEEPENS: Though the fervor over the firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys may have quieted since former attorney general Alberto Gonzales's resignation in August, "the issue that roiled Congress in 2007 could re-emerge in the heat of the election year." The Hill reports that separate investigations by the House and Senate ethics committees are examining whether "several congressional Republicans... improperly interfered with investigations." Though politically significant, the congressional investigations are much narrower in scope than the ongoing Justice Department inquiry, which has been "questioning whether senior officials lied to Congress, violated the criminal provisions in the Hatch Act, tampered with witnesses preparing to testify to Congress, obstructed justice, took improper political considerations into account during the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys and created widespread problems in the department's Civil Rights Division." Congressional aides also expect the "status of the inquiries to arise Jan. 30, when Michael Mukasey testifies for the first time as attorney general before the Senate Judiciary Committee."

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -- NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD: PAKISTAN'S DEMOCRACY CONTINUES TO BE UNDERMINED: Earlier this month, a delegation of lawyers and law students from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) traveled to Pakistan to examine how the country's recent history affected the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law, media freedom, fairness of the upcoming parliamentary elections. They also researched the impacts on U.S. foreign policy towards Pakistan. Through extensive interviews around the country, the group concluded that unless checked, recent events in Pakistan threaten democracy and the rule of law in the country. The delegation said "anything short" of restoring the judges serving on Nov. 2, 2007, will subject the judiciary -- and therefore the entire country -- to the whim of the executive. In light of this situation and a suppressed media, upcoming elections cannot be "free, fair or transparent." The group also had harsh criticisms for the U.S. policy towards Pakistan. NLG said that White House support for the "ruling regime" has severely undermined prior momentum with Pakistan towards sustainable democracy and "inflamed anti-American sentiment." Also, U.S. national security interests are being damaged in the current constitutional crisis. Some "local experts" add that a "militant insurgency" is seeking haven within the regime the U.S. is supporting.

President Bush's attempt to revive the world's biggest economy "was greeted with heavy skepticism on Tuesday as markets tumbled across the globe." Markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney all fell farther in late trading Tuesday than they had all day on Monday.

"The Federal Reserve, confronted with a global stock sell-off fanned by increased fears of a recession, cut a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday."

Bloomberg writes that President Bush has become a "supplicant" to the Saudis for assistance to overcome a recession. "The Saudi monarchy once depended on the U.S. to protect its reign and its oil from foes like Saddam Hussein. These days, President George W. Bush needs the world's biggest exporter of crude more than it needs him."

"The percent of Army recruits with a high school diploma dropped last year, continuing a trend that has worsened since the start of the Iraq war," according to a new report by the National Priorities Project released Tuesday. In 2007, "nearly 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school," falling short of the Army's goal of 90 percent.

"Undocumented immigrants are driving up the number of people without health insurance." The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 59 percent of the nation's undocumented immigrants are uninsured, and they represent about 15% of the nation’s 47 million uninsured people.

And finally: During yesterday's CNN Democratic presidential candidate debate, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was asked about "novelist Toni Morrison's salute to Bill Clinton as 'the first black President.'" Obama replied: "I would have to investigate more Bill's dancing abilities and some of this other stuff before I accurately judged whether he was, in fact, a brother."