Daily Rounds: Women's Health Blocks Budget; Genzyme Hand-Off; Talc Warning; Stomach Pacemaker?

Abortion Dispute Complicates Budget Negotiations - NYTimes.com
Rather than cut all federal funds for Planned Parenthood, House Republicans would like to take the money given to it and other family planning organizations and give it to state health departments to spread at their discretion. Presumably, states controlled by Republican legislatures would choose not to give that money to Planned Parenthood. This rider has become a major sticking point, as it is a priority for House Republicans and inflames Democrats. “I am really stunned, and I am angry as a woman,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, “that we have come to this after weeks of negotiating on numbers, where we have in principle an agreement on numbers, that there are those in the Republican Party in the House who are willing to shut down the government, take people’s paychecks away from them, because they want to deny women access to health care in this country.” (nytimes.com)

New chapter for Genzyme, Termeer - The Boston Globe
CAMBRIDGE — Henri A. Termeer, for decades the public face of Genzyme Corp., formally turned over his Kendall Square office yesterday to the chief executive of Sanofi-Aventis SA, the French drug giant that this week completed its $20.1 billion buyout of the state’s largest biotechnology company. But while he’s out as chief executive of Genzyme — the company he built over three decades into the leading maker of drugs to treat rare diseases — Termeer says he is far from through with biotechnology. (boston.com)

Could Stomach 'Pacemaker' Be New Weight-Loss Tool? - iVillage
The device, not yet approved for use in the United States, is dubbed "abiliti" by its London-based maker, IntraPace. According to the company, the device is implanted in the stomach during a one-hour laparoscopic procedure via small insertions in the abdominal wall.Once in place, the device uses its food-detection sensor to sense whenever a patient eats or drinks. This prompts it to emit low energy electrical pulses to nerves that trigger a feeling of rapid fullness. (ivillage)

Talc Use Linked to Ovarian Cancer Risk -  from MedPage Today
Use of talc-based powder significantly increased the risk of invasive ovarian cancer in a large case-control study that confirmed other analyses performed over the past 30 years. Overall, talc use increased ovarian cancer risk by about 30%; however, the risk increased by two- to threefold among women reporting long-term frequent application of talc powder to the genital area, as reported here at the American Association for Cancer Research. "I have always advised gynecologists, if they examine a woman and see that she is using talc in the vaginal area, tell her to stop," said Daniel W. Cramer, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "There are alternatives. This study strongly reinforces that advice." (medpagetoday.com)

Poll: Mass. voters say health law not working - Boston.com
BOSTON—Nearly half of Massachusetts voters are saying the state's landmark health care law isn't working. That's according to a new poll by Suffolk University and WHDH-TV which found 49 percent of respondents said they didn't feel the 2006 law was helping. Thirty-eight percent said it was working. Thirteen percent were undecided. (boston.com)