The Roman Catholic Church worked aggressively to get a last-minute amendment added to the newly-passed House health care reform bill that specifically prohibits abortion coverage in insurance plans that receive funding from the federal government. The "Stupak-Pitts Amendment," named after Bart Stupak, (D-MI) and Bill Pitts (R-PA), who introduced it, prohibits both public and private insurance plans participating in the proposed government health insurance exchange from providing abortion coverage. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops distributed talking points to priests around the country and gave fliers out to churches that carried the headline "Health Care Reform is About Saving Lives, Not Destroying Them." At least four representatives of the group also held private, last-minute meetings with lawmakers and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday and Saturday, just before the bill was passed. The National Organization of Women, Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), are fighting inclusion of the amendment.

Heads are spinning after the discredited Senate Finance Committee blocked the public option from being part of the health care bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus of Montana and then voted for spending $50 million on the (also discredited) abstinence-only education program that President Obama had pressed to eliminate from the federal budget.

According to the Associated Press, "Two Democrats, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, joined all 10 committee Republicans in voting 'yes' on the measure by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah."

This is the same group who voted with Chairman Baucus against a public option "level playing field" amendment offered by Senator Charles Schumer of New York in the Committee this week. These three Democrats, who voted with all the Republicans against that amendment, also voted together with the Republican block against a broader public option amendment offered by Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. That measure was endorsed by the Center for Media and Democracy's Wendell Potter.

But, the fight for health care reform and against insurance industry-written proposals continues.

After receiving six-figure grants from the pharmaceutical company Merck, three medical associations promoted the company's Gardasil vaccine, "using virtually the same strategy that Merck employed in its marketing campaign." That's according to an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which warned that Gardasil's marketing campaign presents "important challenges to physician practice and medical professionalism." Merck gave $199,000 to the American College Health Association (ACHA), $300,000 to the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) and $250,000 to the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO). ACHA then sponsored "a Webcast viewed by 350 members" about Gardasil and sent "e-mails to college and university students urging them to get vaccinated." ASCCP encouraged doctors to ask "states and federal agencies to pay for the vaccine" and support "mandates for use" of Gardasil. SGO developed "teaching materials [that] omitted cautionary qualifications" about Gardasil. The groups say they disclosed the Merck funding and their activities were not impacted by it.

"Faced with declining sales for Gardasil, the controversial -- and so far only -- vaccine for prevention of human papillomavirus, Merck & Co. is planning to boost the drug's visibility during the key back-to-school shopping period beginning this month," reports Advertising Age. "Merck is participating in vaccination-day events with physicians' offices, clinics and nursing groups by offering supportive resources such as posters, mailers, consumer material and pocket cards that coincide with the time when kids and young adults typically get physicals before school starts in September." U.S. and worldwide sales of Gardasil have declined significantly since last year. On a recent "earnings conference call," Merck's executive vice-president of global human health, Ken Frazier, blamed the decrease on "saturation" of the "prime target of girls ages 13 to 18." So Merck is "firmly committed to achieving greater vaccination rates in the 19-to-26 age group," said Frazier, even though the vaccine must be administered before the onset of sexual activity to provide optimal protection. Merck has also asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve Gardasil for "use in boys and men ages 9 to 26 to prevent external genital lesions ... and for use in women ages 27 to 45." Merck's heavy lobbying of states to require Gardasil vaccinations -- including through the group Women in Government -- has been widely criticized.

In what may be the first case against online astroturfing, New York's attorney general has reached a settlement with a cosmetic surgery company. Lifestyle Lift will pay a $300,000 penalty and has agreed to "stop publishing anonymous positive reviews about the company to Internet message boards and other Web sites," according to a statement from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office. Concerned that "negative Internet posts had significantly hurt the company's reputation," Lifestyle Lift directed its employees to post comments and even create websites praising the company's facelift procedures, while pretending to be Lifestyle Lift customers. In one email, a Lifestyle Lift manager told an employee to "put your wig and skirt on and tell them about the great experience you had." Employees also tried "to 'attack' legitimate comments criticizing the company and tried to get such postings removed." One of the company's websites, MyFaceliftStory.com, now clarifies that it's run by Lifestyle Lift and no longer has stories from people claiming to have undergone the procedure. An archived version of the site from 2008 claims the site was started by "Ann," who wanted to respond to the online "horror stories about Lifestyle Lift," which she thinks "were probably from envious doctors and just made up."

"Well aware that their cause is in trouble and unpopular, purity proponents are revamping their image to appear more mainstream," reports Jessica Valenti. "Think tanks like the Independent Women's Forum and Concerned Women for America, abstinence-only organizations, religious leaders and legislators" are reacting to the Obama administration's "cutting most abstinence-only education funding from the 2010 budget." At the National Abstinence Education Association's (NAEA's) "annual lobby day in March, high on the list of priorities was developing a strategy for continuing to receive federal dollars." In April, NAEA director Valerie Huber told a Capitol Hill briefing, "This is not abstinence only, this is a holistic message that prepares and gives students all of the information they need to make healthy decisions." NAEA -- which hired the PR firm Creative Response Concepts in 2007 -- now calls its programs "abstinence centered," instead of "abstinence only." Huber said that "abstinence education talks about contraception." Valenti counters, "the only time abstinence-only classes will talk about contraception is when they discuss failure rates." WhyKnow, "a major provider of abstinence-only education curriculums," hired a public relations firm "to help recast its image," and changed its name to "On Point." The Medical Institute for Sexual Health, "a hard-core abstinence-only organization," renamed itself the Medical Institute, part of an attempt "to legitimize its message by rebranding itself as science-based."

On May 28, industry executives met "to devise a public relations and lobbying strategy to block government bans" of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in cans and plastic containers. The "manufacturers of cans for beverages and foods and some of their biggest customers, including Coca-Cola" are considering spending $500,000 on PR "to defend their industry." Independent research has linked BPA to heart disease and diabetes in humans, and a wide range of diseases including cancer, obesity and reproductive problems in lab animals. Canada has banned BPA in baby bottles, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration "has deemed it safe largely because of two studies, both funded by a chemical industry trade group," part of the American Chemistry Council. At the meeting, industry executives described their "'holy grail' spokesperson" as a "pregnant young mother who would be willing to speak around the country about the benefits of BPA." Industry representatives also suggested "using fear tactics" -- like asking "do you want to have access to baby food anymore?" -- and framing the opposition to BPA bans as "giving control back to consumers." Their main concern is "young mothers, who often make purchasing decisions for households and who are most likely to be focused on health concerns."

"We don't tell them not to write" about bad experiences, "but most want to only write positive things," said Stacy Becker of Coyne Public Relations. She was talking about General Mills' new blogger network, "MyBlogSpark." Coyne built the network of "more than 900 bloggers -- over 80 percent are moms," and General Mills will "feed them free products and enable them to run giveaways for their audiences." General Mills requires participating bloggers to "contact the MyBlogSpark team before posting any content ... if you feel you cannot write a positive post regarding the product or service." The Federal Trade Commission recently indicated that it may require "clearer disclosure from bloggers who review products." Of the "half-dozen product review posts from MyBlogSpark members" reviewed by Adweek, none included "mention of General Mills." With "moms" controlling "up to $2 trillion in annual spending," companies including Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Wal-Mart already have "mommy blogger" outreach programs.

Procter & Gamble (P&G) "is expanding its My Black is Beautiful (MBIB) marketing program through collaboration on a new TV series set to debut on BET this March," reports PR Week. P&G "multicultural brand manager" Kisha Mitchell Williams described the TV show as "Style magazine meets The View." The first episode will focus on Michelle Obama, "as a recent P&G-conducted survey found that 90% of black women believe her role as First Lady will have a positive impact on the perceptions of black beauty." P&G will promote the show online, with help from the multicultural marketing firm Footsteps Group. A MBIB-themed website will allow visitors to "share videos, photos, and stories, and webisodes." P&G is also promoting the show via Ebony, Essence and other black publications. P&G previously organized "events and cross-country tours" as part of MBIB marketing, which also includes a "manifesto" for the MBIB "movement."

According to internal documents, the pharmaceutical company Wyeth "paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy Prempro." As early as 1997, Wyeth paid the "medical writing firm" DesignWrite to publish favorable journal articles about Prempro under academics' names. "Company executives came up with ideas" for the articles, "titled them, drafted outlines, paid writers to draft the manuscripts, recruited academic authors and identified publications to run the articles -- all without disclosing the companies' roles to journal editors or readers." Wyeth previously claimed that authors had "played significant roles" in journal articles. The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology published one ghostwritten article in May 2003, a year after Wyeth's Prempro was linked to breast cancer (which recent findings confirmed). The ghostwritten article, published under the name of Australian professor John Eden, claimed there was "no definitive evidence" linking hormone therapy to cancer. Just before the federal study linking Prempro to cancer was published, a Wyeth executive asked DesignWrite "to increase the number of positive journal articles" on Premarin, another Wyeth hormone replacement drug.