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Abortion: Private Matter or Public Record?; Violent Jihad Against American Interests; Shoring up Lending to Small Business

Aired October 21, 2009 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Top stories at the top of the hour now. We know why the health secretary showed up at a swine flu hearing with a swollen eye and a bandage on her forehead. Turns out Kathleen Sebelius had skin cancer surgery yesterday. The surgery reported to be a success.

Three days after she vanished, there's no sign of Somer Thompson and no clue what happened to her. The 7-year-old was last seen three days ago on her way home from school near Jacksonville, Florida.

And a decision on troops levels in Afghanistan could be just around the corner. The White House saying it's possible President Obama will make up his mind before Afghanistan's runoff presidential election on November 7. Senator John Kerry just got back from Afghanistan. He's telling the president he should hold off until after the runoff.

Should getting an abortion be a private matter between a woman and her doctor? Or public knowledge with details posted on the Internet? A new law in Oklahoma would put abortion details online. And as you can imagine, that's sparking a court battle.

The law requires abortion providers to ask 37 questions. Among them, the patient's age, marital status, county, race, education and reasons for the abortion. Seemingly, everything but names. Now, many fear in a rural state like Oklahoma, that information could easily be used to identify the women.

Joining me now from Oklahoma City, the law's co-author, Republican State Senator Todd Lamb. And in New York, Jennifer Mondino, a lawyer for the Center for Reproductive Rights. Her group has gotten a restraining order to stop the law from taking effect on the 1st of November.

We will talk about that in just a minute.

Senator, let's start with you.

And I just want to lay out that I don't want to get into any type of abortion debate with you...

TODD LAMB (R), OKLAHOMA STATE SENATOR: Sure.

PHILLIPS: ... and Jennifer Mondino. I want to stick strictly to privacy.

So, let's go ahead and talk about this legislation that you co- authored.

Tell me why you are demanding that all this personal information be available online.

LAMB: Well, I think it's important to note that the bill has been attacked so far on the single subject rule. Not the merits of the bill, nobody's attacked the bill for the prohibition of sex selection abortions or, per se, fiscal requirements of the bill.

But to answer your question directly, Kyra -- and thanks for having me on -- I think it's important, this debate, we can all agree it's very polarizing, and we hear much anecdotal debate oftentimes, when we've heard so many people seek abortions because of rape or incest, or because of X or because of Y. Well, if we have required statistical reporting in Oklahoma, that's our goal so we can add hard- core evidence to this debate.

I'm a former special agent with the United States Secret Service. I had a livelihood that depended upon hard-core evidence. And I think for this polarizing debate, it's very important to have that evidence.

PHILLIPS: So, Jennifer, what do you think about this law and all this information being available on the Internet -- her race, her marital status, financial circumstances, year of education, number of previous pregnancies, reasons for seeking abortion?

JENNIFER MONDINO, ATTORNEY, CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS: Well, we think that the law very seriously infringes on women's privacy rights. Senator Lamb is correct that we have only challenged the law on the grounds at this point that it violates the single suggest rule guaranteed by the Oklahoma Constitution. But we feel it very seriously infringes on women's privacy rights because it requires the state to gather incredibly extensive and detailed information about women having abortions in Oklahoma.

It's going to post a compilation of that information online. And I think that in a state with as low a population as Oklahoma -- it's a rural state, some of the counties and towns have especially low populations -- it might be possible for people in the public or people at the state Department of Health to link that information that's being reported to the state to women and to identify women that have had abortions.

The other thing is that it's forcing women to share very private information with their doctors that they might not otherwise want to discuss. The law requires the state to ask women, for example, very detailed information about the reasons that they have sought to have an abortion, including whether they have relationship problems, financial problems, child care problems. A lot of really detailed and personal issues that women otherwise might not discuss with their doctors.

PHILLIPS: And Senator Lamb, why does it have to get so personal? And doesn't this totally violate HIPAA?

LAMB: No, it doesn't violate HIPAA because the patient's identification will never be revealed. I think it's very important to note that this bill really corrected some of the problems that you have mentioned on the program already.

Previously in Oklahoma, the form that patients, that mothers to be would fill out had their name -- excuse me, had their address, their county of residence. With the new form in the statistical reporting requirement of this bill, the county of residence is not included, the address of the mother is not included, the mother's name is not included, where she lives is not included.

PHILLIPS: But Senator -- but if I...

LAMB: There are many protections in this bill to prevent the mother's identification from ever being realized by anybody. And it's very important to also note -- and I don't mean to interrupt you, it's your program, but I must say this -- the information will not be accumulated on a case-by-case basis or a case-by-case scenario.

It's collected monthly. Not a single report will ever be shown on the Web site. It's a summation, it's in total. And when you look at the Web site, it will not say somebody from Stephens County on this date. So, there will be no personal information revealed and there will be no way to tell who actually received an abortion.

PHILLIPS: So, Jennifer, is that vague enough?

MONDINO: Well, I have to first correct some of the things that the representative said about the law. Actually, the reporting requirements, as I said, are incredibly extensive and detailed, and they do require doctors to get information from women, including where they live, the county of their residence, if they are residents of another country, the number of children and miscarriages and abortions they have had in the past, race, ethnicity, age. Very detailed information.

And at this point, the law says that names of women having abortions will not be included in the report and that the state will take steps to protect the privacy of women that are described in those reports. But it doesn't explain what steps the state is going to take. And it's certainly our position that that type of information, especially in, you know, small towns, rural counties, information about women's race, ethnicity, number of children, that sort of information is enough to identify women even without their names.

PHILLIPS: They'd pretty much be able to figure out who that person is.

LAMB: No -- I'm going to step in here. I don't want to interrupt anybody, I want to be respectful, but they will not be able to determine who received an abortion.

That is not accurate, that's false. I co-authored the bill, I didn't just read the bill yesterday. I co-authored the bill, and we want to be very certain.

And there were women in the chamber that voted for this piece of legislation in the Senate when I presented the bill, but also in the House of Representatives when the House author presented the bill. So, women will be very sensitive to this issue also, and there will be no way to determine who received an abortion once this information is reported.

PHILLIPS: Now, Senator, you say the purpose of this, you know, getting this data together, is to step up education that targets demographics with high rates of unwanted pregnancies.

Do you believe that's the real purpose behind this legislation, Jennifer?

MONDINO: Absolutely not. You know, Oklahoma has been a hotbed of anti-choice activity in recent years. We recently, in another lawsuit that we filed, had another anti-abortion law struck down on similar grounds to the ones that we're raising in our current lawsuit. So, year after year, they proposed new laws that just served to chip away women's rights to access abortion care and also to make it even more difficult and threatening for doctors providing reproductive health care to continue to provide those services.

PHILLIPS: Senator, why not just have women volunteer the information? Why force them to answer all these detailed questions?

LAMB: Well, I think I answered that question earlier in the program. This is a very polarizing debate, and we want to make sure we get the most accurate information possible.

And a lot of these questions, it's also important to know, a lot of these questions were devised by the 2005 Guttmacher Institute study. Guttmacher is the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, so many of these questions Guttmacher themselves asked in the 2005 study.

So, again, we're not trying to be invasive. We're not trying to invade any privacy rights. but the reason, to answer your question, Kyra, is that we're not asking for a volunteer basis. We want to make sure we get the best facts possible so we can go forward, so any bills presented in the future, we can look back to hard facts and say this many mothers to be chose an abortion because of this reason, that reason or another reason.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know there's going to be a hearing December 4th on this. We'll definitely follow up.

Senator Todd Lamb, and also Jennifer Mondino, attorney for Center for Reproductive Rights, I appreciate you both for joining me. Thanks so much.

LAMB: Thank you very much.

MONDINO: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

So, what do you think about this Oklahoma law? We want to hear from you. Send us your tweets at KyraCNN. We're going to read your comments this hour.

Allegedly plotting jihad from his base in the Bay State. A Massachusetts man behind bars today, the center of an FBI terror probe. Feds say this guy wanted to hit Americans of every stripe, from soldiers on patrol to shoppers on the prowl.

Our Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve following the developments right there from Washington -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the 27-year-old man arrested and charged today is Tarek Mehanna. He and others allegedly conspired to kill, maim or injure people outside the U.S. and traveled overseas in an effort to wage jihad.

Here's the U.S. attorney in Boston.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL LOUCKS, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY, MASSACHUSETTS: It is alleged that in their effort to join the jihad to kill Americans abroad, members of the conspiracy traveled to Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and sought training at various camps, including from the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and from the Taliban.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: They did not succeed in getting that training, and it's alleged that he and his co-conspirators then talked about killing two U.S. government officials and planned attacks on U.S. shopping malls, inspired, the U.S. government says, by the Washington snipers. The mall plan fell apart when the group could not obtain automatic weapons.

Court documents also make note of a blog Mehanna allegedly ran which the government claims promotes jihad. There are also allegations that Mehanna translated and distributed a document called "39 Ways to Serve and Participate in Jihad." And the court papers say investigators found a number of videos related to jihad on computers he used, including one clip showing the mutilation and abuse of the remains of U.S. personnel in Iraq -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So, has this guy been in trouble before? Is there a rap sheet? I mean, you have mentioned a few things that have been linked to him.

MESERVE: Yes, he was questioned in the case Daniel Maldano (ph). He's the guy who was picked up fighting against the government in Somalia. He's now serving a 10-year prison term in the U.S. During the investigation of Maldano (ph), Mehanna was questioned and he was indicted of January of this year for lying to investigators in that case -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We'll continue to follow it.

Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much.

Point man on Afghanistan, Senator John Kerry, just back from the war zone. Just finished briefing President Obama this hour.

Kerry was in the middle of the arm-twisting that got Afghan President Hamid Karzai to agree to a runoff election two weeks from now. His take on the runoff? It's a crucial step. Big question, can they pull it off?

You'll recall the August vote was marred by allegations of fraud and violence. President Obama insists a legitimate government must be in place.

President Obama is making a short visit to Maryland this hour, where he's unveiling a plan to refocus the government's massive financial bailout, refocusing it from big banks and investment houses to the little guys. In his words, "The country will not recover until small businesses recover." Seemingly, always on the go, Mr. Obama appeared at a Democratic fund-raiser in New York last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are members of the financial industry in the audience today. I would ask that you join us in passing bar necessary reforms.

(APPLAUSE)

Don't fight them, join us on it. This is important for our country. And in the long run, it will be good for the financial industry, to have a level playing field in which everybody knows the rules and everybody knows that the rules will be enforced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Mr. Obama also did his part for his party, helping to bring in $2 million to $3 million at a Democratic fund-raiser.

Well, are you keeping a sharp eye on your credit card company? If not, you could get slammed with some pretty steep charges.

Here with the info that you need, our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis.

I'll tell you what, you and I have talked about this before. And if you don't look at your credit card statement every month, all types of fees have been popping up on there.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: And new ones coming. You're not going to believe this, Kyra. It's amazing what they're imposing now.

Bank of America is putting in place an annual fee on half a million customers expected to be in place by February. The fee, $29 to $99, just for having the card. It doesn't matter if you're paying late, it's not a charge for that. It's just for the privilege of using a card, sort of what Citigroup is doing as well.

They're charging an inactivity fee if you're not charging at least $2,400 a year on that card. They're going to charges you some dough too.

Fifth Third, a 19 buck inactivity fee.

The reality here is that terms are getting worse for consumers out there, and a lot of these credit card companies are simply trying to get in front of this legislation that's coming early next year that will really tighten down what they can do -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Any way to protect ourselves from these fees? I know a number of times you can call the company and say, hey, what the heck is this? And you can debate it and they'll take it off. But...

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIS: You can still try that. You can still try that. I have heard some success stories with that, but it's not always so.

You really have to think about, how am I using this credit card? Do I need to use it?

The easy credit, it just doesn't exist anymore. What smart consumers are doing is they're putting money aside money, they're saving money. They're having that cash when they want to make that big purchase or that emergency purchase, so they don't have to use that credit card.

Look, it used to be your credit card was your friend. The terms were easy, it was simple to use, it was cheap to use. Not anymore. It's not as easy as it used to be.

PHILLIPS: Well, we should be outraged by this. I mean, there's got to be something more that we can do. I mean, canceling your cards, that's not always an option.

WILLIS: And it's bad news, because that can hurt your credit score.

Look, even if you're going to toss that credit card, you're not going to use it, you have to put it in your wallet and never look at it, because if you cancel it, it hurts your credit score. Best case scenario, a letter to your legislator. But at the end of the day, these terms are not going to help you, and the only way to vote is by not using it.

PHILLIPS: Got it. All right. Gerri Willis, thanks.

WILLIS: My pleasure.

PHILLIPS: It's going to be tough, by the way, as we well know.

Well, it's one of the more alarming facts about being Latina in America -- teens trapped between two worlds and thinking there's only one way out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Straight to the president of the United States right now, getting ready to announce his sweeping plan to free up credit and boost lending to small businesses.

Let's go ahead and listen in.

OBAMA: Thank you, Joe, for that introduction, and for inviting us here to Metropolitan Archives.

I want to acknowledge a few other extraordinary guests.

First of all, the governor of the great state of Maryland, Martin O'Malley is here.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Ben Cardin, who's doing an outstanding job on behalf of the state; House Majority Leader Hoyer; Representative Chris Van Hollen; Representative Donna Edwards, whose congressional district we are in; county executive Jack Johnson; Mayor William Gardner, the mayor of Hyattsville; and my outstanding secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, as well as my extraordinary SBA administrator, Karen Mills.

I am so glad to have them standing behind me today.

You know, five years ago this company was founded by Joe and his old fraternity brother, Doug Peters (ph). I have not had a chance to ask them what they were doing during those frat years, but they were two friends who had known each other since middle school. And today, their families took this company from an empty warehouse to a small business that stores and delivers records for some of the largest firms in the world.

And the success -- the story of their success has been the story of small business owners all across the country, men and women from big cities and from small towns who have had both a good idea and the drive to follow through on it, who have convinced family and friends to join them in taking a chance on a dream.

Now, these entrepreneurial pioneers embody that spirit of possibility and the tireless work ethic, and the simple hope for something better that lies at the heart of the American ideal. And they have always formed the backbone of the American economy.

They're the ones who have opened up the mom-and-pop story stores and started the computer tinkering that's led to some of the biggest innovations in corporations in the world. After all, Hewlett-Packard began in a garage. Google began as a research project. McDonald's started with just one restaurant.

And over the past decade and a half, America's small businesses have created 65 percent of all new jobs in the country. And more than half of all Americans working in the private sector are either employed by a small business or own one. More than half. These companies are the engine of job growth in America. They fuel our prosperity. And that's why they have to be at the forefront of our recovery.

The problem is, our small businesses have been some of the hardest hit by this recession. From middle of 2007 through the end of 2008, small businesses lost 2.4 million jobs. And because banks shrunk from lending in the midst of the financial crisis, it's been difficult for entrepreneurs to take up the loans they need to start a business. For those who do own a small business, it's been difficult to finance inventories and make payroll, or expand if things are going well.

And that's why we made sure the Recovery Act focused on helping small businesses expand and create jobs. In it, we temporarily reduced or eliminated fees on SBA loans, loans that give small businesses more money to reinvest in their own futures. And we guaranteed some of these loans by up to 90 percent, which has given local banks and credit unions the confidence they need to lend.

In the last eight months, these steps have made a real difference for small businesses across America. So far, the Recovery Act has supported over 33,000 loans to small businesses that have already helped save or create nearly tens of thousands of jobs, nearly $13 billion in new lending -- $13 billion. And more than 1,200 banks and credit unions that had stop issuing SBA loans when the financial crisis hit are lending again today, and more than $4.3 billion in federal contracts are now going to small businesses.

We're also providing tax relief to small businesses under the Recovery Act, relief that will give these businesses back over $5 billion this year. And we're giving tax cuts directly to 95 percent of working Americans, which includes the vast majority of small business owners and their employees.

So there's no question that our Recovery Act has given a boost to every American who works at a small business or owns one or aspires to own one. There's no question that the steps we have taken have improved the overall climate for small business across the country, but there's also no question that we have got a long way to go.

There's still too little credit flowing to our small businesses. There's still too many entrepreneurs who can't get the loans they need to open up their doors and start hiring. There's still too many who are struggling to make payroll and to stay open. And there's still too many successful small businesses that want to expand further and hire more, but just don't have the capital to do it.

Metropolitan Archives is one of these companies. Now, Last February, Joe and Doug were able to purchase the building we're standing in with an SBA loan, an expansion that has already helped them retain 10 jobs and one that will create 10 new ones in the months ahead. In fact, business is going so well, that they're already hoping to expand again. But they need another loan to make it happen.

These are kinds of stories I hear from small business owners all the time, and they're the kind of stories that my unbelievable administrators for the SBA, Karen Mills, hears every single day. And that's why today we're announcing new steps to support more lending to America's small businesses, steps that will lead to more jobs, more growth and a stronger economic recovery.

The first thing we need to do is increase the maximum size of various SBA loans. So I'm calling on Congress to increase the cap on what's called 7-A loans to $5 million. These are the loans most frequently handed out by the Small Business Administration to help folks open their doors and by machinery, equipment, land and buildings. These larger loans will help more small business owners and franchisees grow.

We also need to increase the maximum size of what's called 504 loans to $5 million. These are the type of loans that Joe and Doug used to expand this business and create new jobs. And we should also increase the maximum size of micro loans -- these are smaller loans -- that go to startups and other smaller businesses.

Today we're also taking additional steps to boost credit for small businesses through our financial stability plan. The major banks that were in critical condition a year ago need no new assistance from the government. And so we're winding down that portion of the TARP program. But to spur lending to small businesses, it's essential that we make more credit available to the smaller banks and community financial institutions that these businesses depend on.

These are the community banks who know their borrowers, who gave them their first loan, who have watched them grow from down the street, not from Wall Street. The large majority of the business loans from these smaller banks are not to major corporations, they're to entrepreneurs like Joe and Doug.

And when banks like these are hit by recession and financial crisis, creditworthy small businesses lose out, and that means less expansion and fewer new jobs just when we need them the most. And that's why we must do more to give these new opportunity to smaller banks so that they have the ability to access capital, so that they can lends to small businesses in their communities.

So, under the new steps that we're announcing today, if these institutions put forth a plan to increase lending to small businesses, we will help them get the credit they need to do it at rates that are more affordable than the ones offered to our largest financial institutions.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will make capital even more affordable to the community development financial institutions that focus on providing credit to America's small businesses in our hardest hit rural and underserved communities.

(APPLAUSE)

Finally, I have asked Tim Geithner and Karen Mills to convene a conference in the coming weeks that will bring together regulators, congressional leaders, lenders and small businesses to determine what additional steps we can take to get credit flowing to small businesses that want to expand and create more jobs. Of all the steps we're taking to move this economy from recession to recovery, I continue to believe that the success of our small businesses will be a foundation upon which our future prosperity is built.

So, we will continue to do whatever we can to help these businesses grow and thrive. And I'm confident that the steps we announce today will do that for small business owners across the country, men and women we hear from every day.

They're people like Andy Kabral (ph). Son of Portuguese immigrants, Andy (ph) started his business on an SBA loan and now runs 10 stores across Maryland and Virginia that employ 150 people. And Andy (ph) has already seen one loan fall through the cracks because of the financial crisis, and he's hit the cap on his SBA loans. But the measure we're announcing today will help Andy (ph) and other franchisees pursue their plans to expand and create more jobs.

And these steps will make a difference for small businesses like Pete's Pizza (ph) in Washington, D.C. I recommend it. Everybody go out there.

When the three owners had little more than a dream of opening up a casual pizza restaurant, they found it challenging to get financing. Ultimately, they got a loan through City First Bank, a community development bank right in Washington.

Today, business is booming. And the initiative we're announcing today will help more banks provide more loans to businesses like Pete's (ph). And the steps we have announced will make a difference for Joe and Doug and all the folks who work here at Metropolitan Archives.

In the past five years, you have done all that's asked of Americans who hope to pursue a dream of opening their own business. You've taken a risk on a good idea, you've worked hard for your success, you have met your responsibilities to your employees and your customers. It's time that responsibility and that success are rewarded with the opportunity to keep growing, keep hiring, keep contributing to the success of your community and of your country.

That's the opportunity we're providing today, and that's the opportunity I will continue to fight for as your president in the weeks and months ahead.

So, to all the small business owners out there, I just want to close by saying this -- I know that times are tough, and I can only imagine what many of are you are go through in terms of keeping things going in the midst of a very tough economic climate. But I guarantee you this -- this administration is going to stand behind small businesses. You are our highest priority, because we're confident that when you are succeeding, America succeeds.

Thank you very much, everybody. (APPLAUSE)

PHILLIPS: The president of the United States there at the Metropolitan Archives, family owned small business that recently expanded with an SBA loan. You heard the president talking about that. And then he went on to discuss more about the package of initiatives that will increase credit to small businesses, small businesses like Metropolitan Archives here.

The president hopes to boost the credit of small businesses and give them more capital to grow, all a part of getting out of this recession and becoming a much stronger economy.

We'll continue to follow the president's travels, of course, for the rest of the week as he continues to talk about this.

Meanwhile, straight ahead, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, wounded in battle, PTSD, eight medals and ribbons on his chest. Too bad none of it -- none of it -- was true. Well, now it's payback time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

PHILLIPS: All right, Rick Sanchez in espanol. (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

(CROSSTALK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH) My espanol is not that good.

PHILLIPS: But your mama would be so proud. Estella would be saying, yes.

O'BRIEN: Yes, she would. She would, although she chose not to teach us Spanish. When she first...

PHILLIPS: Really?

O'BRIEN: When she first came to this country -- my dad's Austrailian. He didn't speak any Spanish at all, so she said we're not going to speak Spanish.

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh.

O'BRIEN: So, I blame my mother. Like any good Latina.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Exactly. The Latina guilt.

O'BRIEN: It's a Catholic thing. Always, always.

PHILLIPS: All right, my gosh, a few hours away. You're excited, you have been working on this for months and months and months. Obviously, "BLACK IN AMERICA" was very successful. And now we're talking about Latinos, the fastest growing minority group, correct?

O'BRIEN: One of the things we wanted to explore was both the incredible success stories, like Lorena Garcia. We focus on the Garcias tonight, who is the CEO of six companies, a chef who wants to be a crossover to English-language TV. And she's an amazing success story.

And also some folks who are struggling, like Francisca Abreu, who has severe depression. And one of the issues -- I mean, teenagers always struggle certainly, but one of her issues is this pull of cultures. Her mother's Dominican, she grew up in the Dominican Republic but lives here in America, and that pull has been a real challenge for her. We have a short clip.

PHILLIPS: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By her thirteenth birthday, Francisca Abreu had become a statistic.

FRANCISCA ABREU, STRUGGLES TO FIT INTO TWO CULTURES: I wanted to take my mom's pills, and I actually did. I just took very little of different pills so she wouldn't notice I took any.

O'BRIEN: One out of every seven Latina teenagers attempts suicide according to the CDC. Dr. Luis Zayas, a psychologist at Washington University, has spent the last 25 years trying to find out why.

DR. LUIS ZAYAS, PSYCOLOGIST, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: We have the U.S.-born daughter of immigrant parents who is feeling the need to become more independent while her parents are saying, "No, you cannot. You must retain and kind of keep to the values of our culture."

O'BRIEN: Francisca is one of the girls that Dr. Zayas is studying. She came to the United States when she was seven, after being separated from her mother for four years.

(on camera): Did you ever feel that your mom did not want you to be like the American kids around you?

ABREU: She wanted me to be American, but she did not want me to act like them. Said they're very rude to their parents. They tell you what to do. Where they want to go. What they want to eat. No, doesn't work that way.

O'BRIEN: Do you guys fight a lot, you and your mom?

ABREU: Yes. Every day.

O'BRIEN: Over what?

ABREU: From cleaning, doing everything she basically does, because I'm the girl. O'BRIEN: As the years passed, the tension grew. Trapped between two worlds, she fell into a deep depression and took her mother's pills.

(on camera): Why did you want to kill yourself?

ABREU: I was tired of being another burden in my mom's life.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): The pills didn't work. The pain didn't go away. She told no one. One year later, Francisca was in trouble again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Boy, she was really grappling with her identity.

O'BRIEN: Yes, you know, I think it was really -- many people describe sort of this pull, because her mother from the Dominican Republic had some really clear ideas of what she felt a girl should be, what her role should be. And her American friends are saying forget that, come out with us, and do this. Her mother was working several jobs trying to make it, and you see a girl caught in between.

She has a wonderful doctor; she gets therapy now. And there's a real light at the end of the tunnel. Francisca is a wonderful young woman. And we follow her story because her statistic is really quite a shocking statistic, but I think with a lot of hope around it. Especially what people have said to us is let this story be known because a lot of young Latinas don't even realize that they're struggling with depression.

PHILLIPS: And, of course, you got this chance to put a book together, which is absolutely fantastic. Not only do you see pictures and read about stories about certain interesting people that you met, but you talk a lot about your family, too. I love these pictures you have in here.

O'BRIEN: Yes, we start with the story of my family. This is my family, that's my sister, I'm in the middle, my sister to my right, my cousin Kim is below. My little brother (INAUDIBLE) will kill me, his hair is literally six inches high.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: And considering what he does now, he's going to be like, OK, that's not going to be good for business. Very well-known anesthesiologist.

O'BRIEN: My family says we will sue for unflattering pictures, you know.

PHILLIPS: But let's point something out. You know, talking about Francesca, right? And -- Francesca? Is it Francisca? OK. Struggling with her identity, I mean you also, your family has a whole mixture of various ethnicities.

O'BRIEN: My mom's black and Cuban, and my dad's white and Australian.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Could you identify with that?

O'BRIEN: Absolutely. That's definitely the pull, when you have a mother who's like -- listen, my mother's very strict, they were the rules, the kind of rules that she grew up with in Cuba that she expected her daughters to behave that way. And then you come to this country and you identify with the teenagers you run with, you want to be with. I think there really is a cultural pull.

The things that helped me were my parents' insistence on education, and Francisca is a terrific student. I think that ultimately is going to be her salvation, regardless of what troubles she goes through.

But yes, I think it's absolutely true. It's been interesting and fun for me in the process of this documentary, and I write about it in the book, of identifying with teenagers and their experience, trying to figure out how you navigate where you're from and where you are.

PHILLIPS: Can I just brag really quickly here? I was asking Soledad about her brothers and sisters and family. "What's he doing?" "Oh, he's an anesthesiologist." "What's she doing?" "Oh, she's a law professor."

O'BRIEN: My mother would say, everyone's living somewhere, they're not living at home.

PHILLIPS: You guys have all become very successful, and you hit it on the head. It came down to your parents value of education. No matter where you come from, what your struggles are, get educated.

O'BRIEN: And that's the key. Latinas are the fastest growing demographic. And so, if they do not embrace education and if education is not there for them -- because a lot of the struggles are systemic. They're not -- known that the schools are failing some of these students, then we as a nation are in big trouble. Because that's the fastest growing demographic. You can't have students dropping out and failing out and having struggles. You cannot have it and have a nation succeed.

PHILLIPS: Well, the big night starts tonight. Soledad, thank you so much.

We're going do this segment again after the break, but we're going to do it all in Spanish.

O'BRIEN: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

PHILLIPS: There you go! "LATINO IN AMERICA" is a comprehensive look at how Latinos are changing America forever. CNN's two-night event actually takes place tonight and tomorrow nights, 9:00 p.m. Eastern and will also be simulcast in Spanish on CNN en espanol. All right. Taking a look at the top stories right now. A baffling disappearance in north Florida. Still no clues. It's been three days since seven-year-old Somer Thompson vanished while walking home from school. Her mother is pleading for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIENA THOMPSON, MISSING GIRL'S MOTHER: I did her hair for her in the morning, put it up in a ponytail. I can't even remember if I told her I loved her. I went to work and told them to have a good day. She wasn't feeling well, and I told her just try to go to school. If you need me, call me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And a hero hoax in the U.S. Marine Corps, a sergeant pleads guilty to faking war injuries just to get freebies meant for wounded troops. Turns out, David Boudier (ph) was never in Iraq or Afghanistan like he claimed. He could get up to eight-and-a-half years in prison.

First lady Michelle Obama taking health care -- or talking health care with kids. She hosted a health fair just a bit earlier today for public school students and their families. She's encouraging kids to exercise more and eat better.

To scream or not to scream. It's a headline today that has a lot of folks confused about getting checked for cancer. Straight ahead, our senior medical correspondent helps clear up the picture for us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Some cancer screenings aren't what they have been hyped up to be. In a nutshell, that's the front page headline on the "New York Times" today.

But hold on. We investigated on our own. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta to sort it all out for us. Now, this report, Elizabeth, focused in part on breast and prostate cancer. So, what exactly is right and what's wrong?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: OK. Let's talk a little bit about this report, Kyra. What this report said in "The New York Times," if you read the article, you might get the impression, as many I know did, that somehow getting the screening recommendations for breast and prostate cancer had changed. And in fact that is not the case.

The article focuses on the American Cancer Society, and the article looks at what cancer screenings are right for men and women for prostate and for breast cancer. There are no changes, and that, I think, is the most important thing to say. There are no changes despite a front-page story in "The New York Times." The screening suggestions are the same.

You can see it up here. For women, you should have an annual mammogram starting at age 40. Starting at age 50, you can do it every year or every other year. That's a decision to make with your doctor.

And for men, the screening advice has been since 1997, make a personalized screening decision with your doctor. So, we're doing this story because, obviously, a lot of people read "The New York Times," we think it's important to point out that nothing has changed, and in fact the main source for that "New York Times" story called the whole article a tempest in a teapot.

PHILLIPS: All right. We have been hearing about swine flu in recent days, the school closing, the shortages of the vaccine. What's the latest with that?

COHEN: Right. There was a press conference today where they talked about, well, maybe there's not quite as much vaccine as people would like out there because people are very anxious to get vaccinated against H1N1. Here's what homeland security chief Janet Napolitano had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET NAPOLITANO, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF: The frustration now is with delay, not shortage, but delay. Although in context, this is a new flu that we didn't even know about a few months ago. But that vaccine will be pushed out to over 150,000 locations as quickly as humanly possible...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, the bottom line from the federal government is just wait. If you can't find vaccine where you live, just wait, it will be there.

And Kyra, it's sort of interesting because there's a CNN poll that just came out that actually showed that half of all Americans actually don't think that the vaccine is safe, or almost half think it's not safe. So, on the one hand you have this bunch of people who want the vaccine. On the other hand, you have a bunch of people who think it's not safe which makes you think they're probably not going to get it. So, we have sort of broken into two camps in this country.

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen. Thanks.

Happening now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid chastising his GOP counterparts for abandoning a $250 billion Medicare set aside for doctors. Dems now say they don't have the 60 votes needed to pass it. Meanwhile, supporters of a public option are point out to House Democratic health care - or pointing out to a Democratic health care bill that that's getting a positive review from the Congressional Budget Office.

Now, the CBO says the bill would cost an estimated $871 billion over ten years, including the public option, and it says that plan would reduce the federal deficit. It's also cheaper than the original House bill that passed out of three committees this summer. That came in with an estimated cost of more than a trillion dollars.

Our Web site's chock full of info on health care reform. What does it mean to you? Just log on to CNN.com/health.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right, so what's a little Reformation between old friends? The Vatican is setting up a pretty special deal right now where Anglicans may join the Catholic church and keep their liturgy and practices intact, but married priests? No problem.

So, there might be a place for Father Cutie. Remember him? The handsome catholic priest with the tabloid-worthy celibacy problem? He's now married and Episcopalian. The Anglican communion, which includes the Episcopal church in the U.S. has seen some infighting over female clergy and gay clergy. The Vatican, thinking the more old school conservative Anglicans will jump church. The BBC's headline for this story pretty much sums it up. "Rome goes fishing in Anglican pond."

Soup's on and it's hot. I don't mean spicy hot. I mean, you eat a bowl of this and your loins just might just start burning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So, you want to spice up your love life? Get a bowl and get busy. A restaurant in Brooklyn serving up something it calls Viagra soup. No actual Viagra in it. But the ingredients look like the entire cast of "Spongebob Squarepants." Fish, shrimp, lobster, crab, clams -- oh. And a half shot of tequila. That's all? The manager says eat this and you're good to go, baby? The only downside? You have the breath of a sea otter when you eat it.

Here's a story that fell right into our laps, so to speak. Yahoo says its really sorry about the scantly clad ladies hired to (CLEARS THROAT) entertain software dudes over the weekend in Taiwan. Found these pics on Flickr. The dancers did their thing during a brainstorming meeting. It's easy to think about software coding with a lady on your lap.

But anyway, Yahoo pretty much admits this wasn't exactly P.C. and doesn't want women software developers to feel uneasy.

What a perfect segue into Team Sanchez. Hi, Rick. What are you working on?

SANCHEZ: You know what I need to do? I need to start watching those segments a little more carefully so I can have a more intelligent discourse with you, Kyra.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Oh, you have never had a lap dance? Is that what you're telling me?

SANCHEZ: I can't believe you just -- did you just ask me that on national television?

PHILLIPS: Nope.

SANCHEZ: Knowing that my wife records and watches every single thing I do on television?

PHILLIPS: All right, now I'm warm.

SANCHEZ: See, I got your back, didn't I?

Look, there's an interesting story that coming out of Boston. And I got two of the best on this. Tom Fuentes -- you know Tom, FBI Tom Fuentes -- and our own guy, Mike Brooks.

You know, it's looking like this is pretty serious stuff, Kyra. The person that they're arresting -- let me tell you what they're charging him with. This is interesting. "Conspiring to provide material support to terrorists abroad." But then, the attorney, the U.S. attorney goes on to say, "These guys or this guy with some conspirators wanted to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq and hoped to kill one or two members of the executive branch of the U.S. government." By the way, they're not active members of the U.S. branch, so it makes you wonder who we're talking about.

Here's the part that worries me, and here's the part that would worry a lot of Americans, especially going into the holiday season. It says the suspect and the co-conspirators also had discussed an attack on at least one U.S. mall. Which is what a lot of these officials in security have been telling us we need to be careful about.

And here we have a case where they believe somebody wanted to do exactly this. We're going to take you through it and we're going to get all the answers from these guys who have been making a lot of phone calls to Washington to find out what the FBI's got on these suspects, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll track it with you. Thanks, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: An abortion law in Oklahoma is sparking a court battle and controversy. That law requires abortion providers to collect and report details about their patients seeks abortions. Seemingly everything except actual names.

If you were watching at the top of the hour, you saw our heated debate about it. And a lot of you have been tweeting us.

Veritaz writes, "How Taliban of Oklahoma to invade a woman's medical file. Privacy only for men and compliant women, it seems.

MVBennett26 writes: "This law violates a patient's right to privacy. It also places a woman's safety at risk from fanatics."

Nanakay13 says, "I'm not pro abortion, but this is sick. I live in Oklahoma, but haven't heard of it."

And SharkGoddess puts it this way: "That is a complete invasion of privacy, having your personal info for a medical procedure on the Internet. Unacceptable.

BrandonLK says, "If there is nothing collected that can identify the individual, I am okay with it. Doesn't the U.S. census ask us the same questions?"

Thanks for your tweets, I sure appreciate it. Keep them coming here @KyraCNN. We'll see you back here tomorrow, 1:00 Eastern time. Meanwhile, Rick Sanchez picks it up now.