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Vatican's Approach To Obama On Abortion Rights Contrasts With That Of U.S. Bishops
National Partnership for Women & FamiliesDuring his visit to the Vatican on Friday, President Obama is likely to receive a warmer welcome from Pope Benedict XVI than he has from some U.S. Roman Catholic bishops, experts on the church say, the New York Times reports. The meeting will occur after the conclusion of the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit in Italy and three days after the pope released an encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate," updating the church"s social teaching on the global economy.Early in Obama"s administration, U.S. Catholic bishops "set an adversarial tone" over Obama"s views on abortion rights, contraception and embryonic stem cell research, the Times reports. Although the pope also disagrees with Obama on those issues, he and Obama both recognize an opportunity to come together on international issues like climate change, poverty, nuclear nonproliferation and immigration reform, according to the Times. In a session with reporters from Catholic publications last week, Obama said the church has "always been a powerful moral compass" on questions of social justice. He also said that U.S. bishops "have a profound influence" and that he would take his critics" opinions seriously.The Vatican has often taken a much softer approach than the U.S. bishops in its reactions to Obama"s abortion-rights policies, according to the Times. The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a letter issued after the election that "aggressive pro-abortion policies" would "be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion." In contrast, the Vatican sent Obama a telegram of congratulations immediately after his election, which experts say is "a highly unusual gesture" because the Vatican usually waits until inauguration, the Times reports.More recently, several U.S. bishops denounced the University of Notre Dame for inviting Obama to give the spring commencement address and receive an honorary degree. The Vatican"s newspaper ran a "markedly positive" article about Obama"s speech in reaction to the controversy, according to the Times. Some Vatican officials have also expressed support for Obama"s "common ground" approach to reducing the need for abortion, whereas some U.S. bishops and antiabortion-rights leaders have reacted with "suspicion and disdain," the Times reports (Goodstein, New York Times, 7/10).According to John Allen, a Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, cultural differences between U.S. and European Catholic views on abortion rights help explain their contrasting approaches to the issue. Allen said that abortion is usually "the defining social and political issue" in the U.S., and that "everything else, in a way, takes second place." In Europe "that has never been the case," and "even the most conservative Catholics in Europe ... don"t evaluate political leaders exclusively through the basis of their positions on abortion and other so-called life issues," Allen said (Poggioli, "Morning Edition," NPR, 7/10).The Vatican and the U.S. bishops also have different approaches to working with governments, according to the Rev. Drew Christensen, editor-in-chief of the national Jesuit weekly magazine America. Christensen, who formerly worked for the church in international relations, said that some Obama critics "think you have to be at war, and the pope is saying, there"s a different way to proceed here and it"s very essential to the church"s approach, in that what you want is consensus." Christensen added that the pope is "trying to engage America"s capacity for good in the world at a time when it"s really critical" (New York Times, 7/10).
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U.S. Has Pent-Up Demand For Eldercare Capable Personal Robots
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New York Lawmakers Should Pass Bill Capping Amount Low-Income Residents With HIV Pay For Housing, Columnist Says
Some New York City residents with HIV pay as much as 70% of their income on housing because of the financial assistance they receive through the New York City HIV/AIDS Services Administration, New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis writes. According to Louis, lawmakers should pass a bill that would cap the rent contribution of low-income people with HIV/AIDS at 30% of their income, "the standard used for most rent-subsidy programs." The bill is currently before the state"s Assembly Ways and Means Committee. Louis adds that ensuring that people living with HIV are in "stable housing ò€¦ makes them less likely to run up big taxpayer bills by using public hospital emergency rooms for basic health care." He concludes, "Albany has a choice: do what"s cheap and quick in the short run, or do what makes long-term sense and saves lives" (Louis, New York Daily News, 5/31).
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Blood Pressure In Non-Adherent Hypertensive Patients Can Be Improved By Intensive Management

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that patients with uncontrolled hypertension respond to treatment intensification regardless of their degree of adherence to antihypertensive medications. This study, which has been published online in Hypertension could have an immediate impact on clinical care, as it challenges a widely held assumption. The BUSM researchers studied 819 patients with hypertension. Adherence was assessed using electronic bottle caps that record all bottle openings and provide a detailed record of pill-taking. Patients were divided into five groups: those with the best adherence, next-best, fair, poor and patients who did not return their electronic bottle cap (missing adherence). The investigators then characterized the degree to which each patient"s therapy was intensified, relative to the patient"s blood pressure control. The effect of treatment intensification upon the final blood pressure was similar in all five adherence groups, and the small differences among groups were not statistically significant. The investigators concluded that treatment intensification can improve blood pressure control for patients with varying levels of adherence to therapy. . "Despite a lack of evidence, many clinicians assume that "nonadherent" patients cannot benefit from treatment intensification," said the study"s lead author, Adam Rose, MD, MSc, an assistant professor of medicine at BUSM and investigator at the Bedford Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford Mass. "Our study calls this assumption into question. One of the major contributions of this study is to remind us that adherence is not a binary concept, with patients divided into those who are "adherent" or "nonadherent,"" added Rose. Rose recommends further studies be undertaken to determine the most effective management strategy for patients with uncontrolled hypertension and suboptimal adherence. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Gina DiGravio Boston University Medical Center


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