--- title: "Oprah is Not Your Doctor and Much, Much More" date: 2009-05-19T11:46:25-04:00 author: OBOS Admin canonical_url: "https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/oprah-is-not-your-doctor-and-much-much-more" section: Blog (Archive) --- [Donate](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/donate) [From the Archives of Our Bodies, Our Blog](/blog)# Oprah is Not Your Doctor and Much, Much More By Christine Cupaiuolo • May 19, 2009 Please note: This entry -- originally posted at [Our Bodies, Our Blog](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog) -- has not been updated since the publication date listed above. *The Double Dose/Political Diagnosis catch-up edition ...* **Taking Medical Advice From Oprah**: In a word, [don't](http://www.salon.com/env/vital_signs/2009/05/15/oprah_winfrey_health/?source=newsletter). **Blogging the Common Ground**: CNN's ["blogger bunch" discussion on abortion](http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/05/18/dcl.bloggers.abortion.cnn?iref=videosearch), following [President Obama's speech at Notre Dame](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104230084), includes our fave Ann Friedman of Feministing and The American Prospect. **Supreme Court Rules 7-2 Against Women Workers**: Women whose pension payments are reduced because they took pregnancy-related leave in the 1960s and 1970s, when pregnancy discrimination wasn't illegal, aren't entitled to full pension benefits now, the [Supreme Court ruled Monday](http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0518/p02s10-usju.html). The women lost an appeal aimed at forcing AT&T to grant compensatory service credits to boost their pensions. **Motherhood, a Discussion**: A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [report](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db18.htm) released this month found that the percentage of children born to unmarried women rose to [ nearly 40 percent of births](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/health/13mothers.html?_r=1&ref=health) in 2007, up from 34 percent in 2002. The New York Times [invited five experts](http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/a-new-trend-in-motherhood/) to weigh in: [Silvia Henriquez](http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/a-new-trend-in-motherhood/#silvia), National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health; [Stephanie Coontz](http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/a-new-trend-in-motherhood/#stephanie), Council on Contemporary Families; [Corinne Maier](http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/a-new-trend-in-motherhood/#corinne), author; [Mark Regnerus](http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/a-new-trend-in-motherhood/#mark), sociology professor; and [Libertad González Luna](http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/a-new-trend-in-motherhood/#libertad), economics professor. **FEMA's Healthier Housing?**: [From NPR](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104203598&sc=nl&cc=nh-20090516): The Federal Emergency Management Agency has unveiled new models of temporary housing designed to provide shelter for people displaced by natural disasters. A serious plus: They have been built with as little formaldehyde as possible, unlike the trailers FEMA provided to Hurricane Katrina victims. **New CDC Director**: President Obama on Friday appointed New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden as director of the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention](http://www.cdc.gov/). "Dr. Frieden, a 48-year-old infectious disease specialist, has cut a high and sometimes contentious profile in his seven years as New York’s top health official under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg," [reports The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/health/policy/16cdc.html?hp). "He led the crusade to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, pushed to make H.I.V. testing a routine part of medical exams, and defended a program that passes out more than 35 million condoms a year." **Medicaid as a Platform for Heath Reform**: Kaiser Family Foundation released a [package of research papers](http://www.kff.org/medicaid/kcmu051209pkg.cfm) last week that examine opportunities for expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income and high-need people in ways that would enable the program to serve as a platform for larger national health reform efforts. The papers were released at a public briefing on Medicaid as a Platform for Broader Health Reform. A webcast of the briefing is available. **Plus**: Also from Kaiser -- an expert panel examined the [global health aspects of Obama'sFiscal Year 2010 budget](http://globalhealth.kff.org/Multimedia/2009/May/14/gh051409video.aspx), including allocations for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). The panel, part of KFF’s new "U.S. Global Health Policy: In Focus" live webcast series, also discussed what the next steps are for the budget with Congress. The [webcast and podcast](http://globalhealth.kff.org/Multimedia/2009/May/14/gh051409video.aspx) is available. **Max Baucus is for Health Care Reform**: But Democrats aren't entirely sure which side the Montana senator and Finance Committee chairman is on, [reports Politico](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22629.html). "Baucus puts a premium on bipartisanship, and if he insists on winning more than a handful of Republican votes, the final product could look vastly different than a bill passed through the Senate with only a simple majority." **Meanwhile**, centrist Democrats have [raised concerns](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22581.html) with House leaders over a health reform bill that includes a public insurance plan that competes with the private insurance market ... Hospitals and insurance companies want to [reduce the growth](http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/12/healthcare/?source=newsletter) of health care spending, but [not like *that*](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/health/policy/15health.html?) ... James Ridgeway wrote earlier in the week at [Mother Jones](http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/05/health-care-industrys-pr-scam-will-obama-fall-it) that "the underlying purpose of this PR stunt is to slow or block any meaningful health care reforms, which could actually improve care while reducing the price tag by a lot more than 1.5 percent." ... The Washington Post [deconstructs the White House email](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/13/white_house_sends_its_first_e-.html?wprss=44) on health care reform ... And Covering Health, the blog of the Association of Healthcare Journalists, asks: [Have reporters written off single-payer system?](http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2009/05/have-reporters-written-off-single-payer-system/) **Single Payer Would Have Been Nice, But ...**: If the country were building a health care system from scratch, a single-payer system would be the way to go, Obama said in response to a question about single-payer health care at a town-hall style meeting in New Mexico last week. But at this point, with a tradition of employer-based health care already in place, the goal is simply to improve the current system. Here's the discussion: --- #### 2 Responses Our Bodies Ourselves is no longer able to accept comments. **liberality** on May 19, 2009 There are studies that back up bio-identical hormones as safer--they just aren't talked about in our country. And our country's health record just sucks. The FDA is a joke--another fox in the hen house so to speak. You blog about the inadequate to dangerous health care women receive all the time in this blog. **Christine C.** on May 19, 2009 I completely agree that the U.S. record on pharmaceuticals is lacking, but there's no good evidence that bioidenticals are safer. Women's health advocates have raised a number of red flags, including the lack of oversight of compounding pharmacies: http://www.nwhn.org/healthinfo/detail.cfm?info\_id=17&topic=Fact%20Sheets The issue goes beyond Somers, however. A number of guests have been given a powerful forum to promote specious claims and offer potentially dangerous advice. ![](/assets/img/monogram.webp)Topics - [Abortion & Reproductive Rights](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/abortion-reproductive-rights) - [Healthcare System](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/healthcare-system) - [Legal](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/legal) - [Motherhood](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/motherhood) - [Political Diagnosis](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/political-diagnosis) - [Politics](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/politics) - [Pregnancy & Childbirth](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/pregnancy-childbirth) - [Public Policy](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/public-policy) ![](/assets/img/monogram.webp)### *Why You Can* **Trust Us** - We rigorously evaluate all content - We embrace a reproductive justice framework - We don’t accept ads or sell products - We reject funding from the pharmaceutical industry - We counter misinformation and disinformation - We address the social, political, and economic factors that affect health and sexuality [read more](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/why-you-can-trust-us) Share [](javascript:void();)[](javascript:void();)[](javascript:void();)[](javascript:void();)