Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

President Bush to Hold Another Townhall Chat on Proposed Social Security Changes; Number of Dead Following Monday's 8.7 Earthquake Getting Close to 1,000

Aired March 10, 2005 - 11:30   ET

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

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


RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It's coming up on the half hour. In fact we're there. I'm Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Daryn Kagan. Here's what's happening right now in the news. No. 2 computer maker Hewlett-Packard is tapping veteran tech exec Mark Hurd as its new CEO. He replaces ousted HP boss Carly Fiorina. Hurd is currently chief executive at NCR Corporation, which makes, among other things, automated telemachines.

Former Alabama Senator Howell Heflin has died. Heflin served three terms in the Senate. The Democrat played a prominent role in the Iran Contra investigation. He also helped defeat Judge Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. Howell Heflin was 83.

Joan Kennedy is in a Boston hospital this morning with a concussion and a broken shoulder. A passerby found her lying unconscious in the street in the middle of the night.

And St. Joseph's will meet South Carolina in the NIT championship game Thursday night. The hawks beat Memphis to reach the title game. The Gamecocks outscored Maryland.

Keeping you informed, CNN is the most trusted name in news.

SANCHEZ: President Bush is due in Iowa at this hour. He's going to hold another townhall chat on his proposed Social Security changes.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House. She's filing this story for us.

Good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Rick. That's right, President Bush is traveling to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to continue to try to press his ideas on changing Social Security. Now this is really part of the Bush administration's 60-day nation nationwide push that kicked off at the beginning of March. The idea is to have administration officials, as well as President Bush himself travel across the country and try to convince the public, and in turn Congress that they need to act now to keep Social Security solvent.

Well, today in Iowa, the president will be targeting one lawmaker in particular, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. His support will be crucial to getting any reforms passed, but so far the senator has indicated he's not convinced that President Bush, in fact, has the solution.

Now, to make his case, the president will be taking part in another of what the White House calls conversations on Social Security. These, of course, are highly managed events where those on stage with the president are carefully chosen. These people also support his ideas on changing Social Security.

Now, the president has not laid out a detailed plan, but what he has said has met with fierce opposition from Democrats, and the powerful lobbying group for seniors, the AARP. President Bush wants to carve out personal accounts from Social Security to allow workers under 55 to set aside some of their withholdings. But several polls have shown that most Americans don't support that idea. Nevertheless, the president is continuing to push ahead, trying to sell the idea that if lawmakers don't act now, Social Security will go broke sooner rather than later.

SANCHEZ: Elaine Quijano following that story from the White House. We thank you.

Daryn, over to you.

KAGAN: Alaska is holding a tsunami-warning system test today. That familiar urgent tone will interrupt radio and television broadcasts with the announcement this is only a test. People in the coastal areas of Alaska are urged to monitor that test. If they don't receive the warning, they should call the National Weather Service.

Relief groups plan to fly 350 tons of food into Indonesia's hardest hit Nias Island today. The number of dead following Monday's 8.7 earthquake is getting close to 1,000.

CNN's Hugh Riminton reports now from Nias Island.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm standing on what was the rooftops of the commercial district at the town of Gunungsitoli, the main town on the island of Nias. Every building along this stretch has collapsed, simply collapsed, in on itself. Nothing is standing as it was before. It's not simply damaged; it has been obliterated.

As you can see behind me, there are effort being made to find the dead, to look for any survivors. As we've seen in the course of the last few hours, several bodies being removed from buildings around here. We've not seen any evidence that there is anyone still alive in the rubble. Of course that could always change. But we have not seen any rescues of that nature so far.

As you can see, all of the rescue efforts that are being made that stage are ad hoc, they're simply local people trying with whatever they've got to do their own search-and-rescue work through the rubble. A little bit of advice from the local police or the army, but that's it. There is no expertise at all that has yet come in, apart from one assessment team; a French assessment team has come in and is starting to do its assessment. Pretty much, though, people at this stage are still fundamentally left to themselves. Among the other difficulties on the island of Nias at the moment, the hospital is likely to be evacuated in the next 24 hours. It was badly damaged in the earthquake. One of the doctors was killed. They're short on medicine. They're simply overwhelmed in any event, and it s been judged to be no longer safe. So an attempt is being made to bring the people who are injured, there are many of them, bring them into a makeshift clinic. The worst of them, the worst hurt of them, are being triaged by experts now. They're being medevacked when helicopters are becoming available. A couple dozen have been moved out already. A few more are expected to be moved out in the next hour or so.

Officially the death toll now starting to edge up from the 330 that was being put in the last 24 hours, it's up now more towards 1,000. I've spoken to a leader of the Chinese community here. He believes that within his community, a minority community, on the island of Nias, there are 300 people who are dead. That might give some indication of the wider death toll. There is, of course, the relief that there was no tsunami this time, but that's precious little relief for the people who today are mourning the loss of entire families in this devastating earthquake.

In Gunungsitoli, on the island of Nias, Indonesia, Hugh Riminton, for CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Other stories we're following in today's world wrap, the Iraq National Assembly is going to try once again this weekend to try to move the new government forward. Negotiators were at work today after yesterday's meeting adjourned without a selection of a parliamentary leader. The body must also choose a president, a prime minister, before moving on to a larger task of drafting then a new national constitution.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is expected to be approved tomorrow as the head of the new World Bank. Despite some initial misgivings among some European leaders, Wolfowitz has assured them that he is committed to the mission of the World Bank in helping to reduce global poverty.

And in Russia's Duma, look at this, fisticuffs, to say the very least. It could cost the deputy speaker his post. They just went after each other. It is a brawl. It was touched off when the deputy speaker alleged voting irregularities in a regional election. The deputy speaker was immediately barred from addressing the Duma for a month. An investigation of this fight was ordered.

KAGAN: We don't expect any fisticuffs just ahead, but we do have a very controversial topics, your rights versus your pharmacist's rights. After the break, I'll talk with two people on opposing sides of a thin line.

SANCHEZ: And what you need to know about your kid's school locker rooms. They could be deadly. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Topping the news in today's "Daily Dose," doctors in Lynchburg, Virginia, are trying to get a better handle on the Reverend Jerry Falwell's health status. The well-known conservative preacher is listed in critical but stable condition at an area hospital. A Falwell assistant says it appears to be a relapse of the viral pneumonia that had him hospitalized for almost two weeks back in February.

To Florida: medical authorities still cannot say for sure if e.Coli was the cause of a 12-year-old girl's death last week. The mysterious outbreak is suspected of infecting nearly 40 people in the state most of them children. Speculation has focused on e.Coli either from livestock, food or some other source, but health officials so far have not reached any conclusions.

SANCHEZ: We want to tell you now about some frightening, potentially fatal illnesses that are starting to show up in some unusual places and among presumably healthy people. CNN's Jason Carroll reports from Houston, Texas, on a bug that some people call the locker room killer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two young men went out to play football. And, just a few days later, both were fighting to stay alive.

KATHY YKEMA, MOTHER: It wasn't until he was on death's doorstop did we even realize how sick he was.

CARROLL: Matthew Ykema played football in a suburb of Houston. Ricky Lannetti played for Lycoming College in Pennsylvania.

THERESA LANNETTI, MOTHER: I just thought he caught something and was really sick and he was going to be OK.

CARROLL: Both young men had contracted what some doctors are calling a super bug, an aggressive bacterial infection called MRSA. It's a mutated strain of staphylococcus, resistant to most antibiotics.

K. YKEMA: I think it's a new silent killer. It just comes so fast and furious.

CARROLL: Doctors have seen it before, but usually in bedridden hospital patients with exposed wounds. Now they're seeing more cases among athletes playing contact sports. MRSA has hit professional football players, high school wrestlers and fencers, few cases as serious as Ricky's and Matthews'.

K. YKEMA: Here we had gone to the emergency room thinking, oh, he'll come home with a brace. And we just didn't understand that he was dying right before our eyes.

DR. SHELDON KAPLAN, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is Matthew's case.

CARROLL: In Matthew's case, MRSA caused dozens of blood clots from his leg to his lungs.

KAPLAN: What is it about this organism that makes it so successful? We just don't know.

CARROLL: Ricky Lannetti's mother says emergency room doctors desperately worked on her son.

LANNETTI: They didn't know what was wrong with him. They had no idea. It was one organ after another just started shutting down on him. And it was that quick. By 7:36 that night, he died.

CARROLL: Doctors think an open sore may have been exposed to MRSA on the field or in a locker room.

LANNETTI: He only lived 21 years, but he had a great life. He was like everything to me. He was my best friend. He was my son.

CARROLL: Doctors still don't know how Matthew became infected.

MATTHEW YKEMA, STUDENT: It gave me a lot of time to think about how valuable life is and how much time you need to spend with family.

CARROLL: Matthew had to give up contact sports. A filter was implanted in his lungs to protect against clots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're feeling pretty blessed.

K. YKEMA: Absolutely. Not a day goes by where we're not just tickled silly to know that Matthew is just a walking miracle.

CARROLL: Doctors watch him closely, as they continue to investigate the deadly bacteria that is still one step ahead of them.

Jason Carroll, CNN, Houston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now to get your daily dose of health news online, just go to our Web site. You will find the latest medical news, the health library, information on diet and fitness as well. The address, cnn.com/health.

Recently the Terri Schiavo case has highlighted the fight between the law and religion.

Up next we'll tackle the issue again, this time between the law and your pharmacist's beliefs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We've got an update now and, we're happy to say, good news on the condition of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. This is a news conference that we've been monitoring in Virginia. These are doctors at Lynchburg General Hospital. They now say that they have upgraded his condition from critical to stable as he continues to recover from a recurrence of pneumonia.

Here's file video that we have of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Doctors say that they have now removed a breathing tube and that the 71-year-old Falwell is breathing on his own. But he still had some fluid in his lungs. In fact, I should say still has some fluid in his lungs, so it's something doctors are going to be watching.

Also another story that we're following at this time: the president of the United States is arriving in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is one of the tours that he's been taking all over the country where the president arrives to talk about his Social Security reform plan. The president there in Cedar Rapids expected to talk soon. We'll be following that for you as well. Daryn, over to you.

KAGAN: Colorado's governor is facing a moral and political dilemma. It's over a bill requiring hospitals to tell rape victims about emergency contraceptive. Governor Bill Owens is a Catholic and a Republican who campaigned on conservative values. He's trying to decide whether to sign the legislation. Fellow Republicans and the Denver archbishop are urging him not to. They say the bill promotes abortion.

The battle over reproductive rights is playing out on another front: your neighborhood pharmacy. Some pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and for morning-after pills on moral and religious grounds. With us this morning from Washington, we have two guests. Stephen Aden, he is with the Christian Legal Society Center for Law and Religious Freedom, which represents some of the pharmacists. And Nancy Keenan. She is president of the pro-choice group NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Good morning to both of you and thank you for being here with us.

NANCY KEENAN, PRESIDENT, NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA: Good morning to you.

STEPHEN ADEN, CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY CENTER FOR LAW AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: Good morning.

KAGAN: Stephen, I want to start with you and have you explain the defense for these pharmacists which are refusing to dispense not illegal drugs, just what they consider to be objectionable medications.

ADEN: Well, there are many pharmacists who have strong spiritual and religious beliefs. That's one of the reasons they go into the healing profession. They are professionals like doctors and nurses. For over 2,000 years the Hippocratic oath has applied and it says "First do no harm." The ethical standards of the profession like other medical professions say, this is the American Pharmacist Association, that the pharmacist has the right of conscience to decline to dispense medication that violates their conscience.

KAGAN: Our time is short, so I want to make sure I get Nancy in here. I would imagine you're going to pick up on the phrase "do no harm." You say some of the women who are showing up for the morning- after pills are being harmed because they're not being able to get access to the medication that they want and that they have a right to.

KEENAN: Absolutely. This is about women being able to walk into a pharmacist and get their birth control pill and actually a decision between their doctor and themselves. And to be denied basic medical care and have your prescription filled is ludicrous in today's society where 95 percent of women have accessed birth control in their lifetime. And to be denied that coming into a pharmacy is unconscionable, especially in rural America where there might only be one pharmacy available for these women to access their prescription.

KAGAN: All right, Stephen, let's bring you back in here. Every job, every person who goes to work for any kind of corporation or any company, there are demands. For instance, if I don't want to get up really early in the morning, then I can't do this job. So if there are demands with a certain job and a pharmacist doesn't do that, why don't they go work someplace else?

ADEN: Well, it's important to recognize that when it comes to religious and spiritual convictions, federal and state law provide protections for the religious rights of workers and requires that they be accommodated in the workforce. Pharmacists are the same way. If there is a system of accommodation in place whereby a patient can go to another pharmacist at the same pharmacy or can go to another pharmacy nearby, then the patient's need is taken care of. The American Pharmacist's Association says that a pharmacist's right of conscience should not be compromised for the sake of a patient's convenience. I think that's what Nancy's arguing for.

KAGAN: And Nancy -- go ahead, Nancy, we'll let you have the last say.

KEENAN: Look, this is an issue about women wanting to come into their pharmacy and access birth control prescribed by their doctor. This is not about being able to go to another pharmacy and make it inconvenient. This is about basic healthcare, women accessing a prescription, birth control. And I think Americans understand that this is ludicrous, that you cannot go into a pharmacy and have somebody decide for you whether or not you should have that prescription or not. It's wrong.

KAGAN: Nancy, tell me where the campaign that your organization -- what they're putting together?

KEENAN: We actually are having women across the country go to their pharmacies and make sure that they have access to birth control and access to their prescriptions. They can go to www.prochoiceamerica.org and find out about the campaign across this country and making sure birth control is available to women, no matter whether you're in rural America or a city in America.

KAGAN: And just to keep it fair, three turns for each side. Stephen, where your defense, stands that point?

ADEN: We're getting close. We're also getting calls from pharmacists across the country who are sometimes being driven out of their profession. I know of several pharmacists who have had to leave their states because of hostility towards their pro-life views. Nancy's position would not result in more medications being dispensed for some women, it would result in fewer pharmacists for all of us.

KAGAN: Two completely opposite opinions, but we knew that when we asked both of you to come on. Thank you for a civil conversation. Stephen Aden and Nancy Keenan.

SANCHEZ: We're going to have a quick weather and business update when we come back, but we're also doing something else. We're checking on a couple of stories. First of all, we told you about what was going on with the Reverend Jerry Falwell.

And now this. We have told you that the president of the United States is going to be arriving in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He's going to be holding a forum there, a town hall meeting as they're often referred to, where he talks about Social Security reform. We'll follow it for you. We'll have the details and we'll be right back right back. Right here on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Thank you. And that's going to do it for us. I'm Daryn Kagan.

SANCHEZ: And I'm Rick Sanchez. Let's head over to Wolf Blitzer now and find out what else is going on on this day and what he has on tap.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired March 10, 2005 - 11:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It's coming up on the half hour. In fact we're there. I'm Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Daryn Kagan. Here's what's happening right now in the news. No. 2 computer maker Hewlett-Packard is tapping veteran tech exec Mark Hurd as its new CEO. He replaces ousted HP boss Carly Fiorina. Hurd is currently chief executive at NCR Corporation, which makes, among other things, automated telemachines.

Former Alabama Senator Howell Heflin has died. Heflin served three terms in the Senate. The Democrat played a prominent role in the Iran Contra investigation. He also helped defeat Judge Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. Howell Heflin was 83.

Joan Kennedy is in a Boston hospital this morning with a concussion and a broken shoulder. A passerby found her lying unconscious in the street in the middle of the night.

And St. Joseph's will meet South Carolina in the NIT championship game Thursday night. The hawks beat Memphis to reach the title game. The Gamecocks outscored Maryland.

Keeping you informed, CNN is the most trusted name in news.

SANCHEZ: President Bush is due in Iowa at this hour. He's going to hold another townhall chat on his proposed Social Security changes.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House. She's filing this story for us.

Good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Rick. That's right, President Bush is traveling to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to continue to try to press his ideas on changing Social Security. Now this is really part of the Bush administration's 60-day nation nationwide push that kicked off at the beginning of March. The idea is to have administration officials, as well as President Bush himself travel across the country and try to convince the public, and in turn Congress that they need to act now to keep Social Security solvent.

Well, today in Iowa, the president will be targeting one lawmaker in particular, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. His support will be crucial to getting any reforms passed, but so far the senator has indicated he's not convinced that President Bush, in fact, has the solution.

Now, to make his case, the president will be taking part in another of what the White House calls conversations on Social Security. These, of course, are highly managed events where those on stage with the president are carefully chosen. These people also support his ideas on changing Social Security.

Now, the president has not laid out a detailed plan, but what he has said has met with fierce opposition from Democrats, and the powerful lobbying group for seniors, the AARP. President Bush wants to carve out personal accounts from Social Security to allow workers under 55 to set aside some of their withholdings. But several polls have shown that most Americans don't support that idea. Nevertheless, the president is continuing to push ahead, trying to sell the idea that if lawmakers don't act now, Social Security will go broke sooner rather than later.

SANCHEZ: Elaine Quijano following that story from the White House. We thank you.

Daryn, over to you.

KAGAN: Alaska is holding a tsunami-warning system test today. That familiar urgent tone will interrupt radio and television broadcasts with the announcement this is only a test. People in the coastal areas of Alaska are urged to monitor that test. If they don't receive the warning, they should call the National Weather Service.

Relief groups plan to fly 350 tons of food into Indonesia's hardest hit Nias Island today. The number of dead following Monday's 8.7 earthquake is getting close to 1,000.

CNN's Hugh Riminton reports now from Nias Island.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm standing on what was the rooftops of the commercial district at the town of Gunungsitoli, the main town on the island of Nias. Every building along this stretch has collapsed, simply collapsed, in on itself. Nothing is standing as it was before. It's not simply damaged; it has been obliterated.

As you can see behind me, there are effort being made to find the dead, to look for any survivors. As we've seen in the course of the last few hours, several bodies being removed from buildings around here. We've not seen any evidence that there is anyone still alive in the rubble. Of course that could always change. But we have not seen any rescues of that nature so far.

As you can see, all of the rescue efforts that are being made that stage are ad hoc, they're simply local people trying with whatever they've got to do their own search-and-rescue work through the rubble. A little bit of advice from the local police or the army, but that's it. There is no expertise at all that has yet come in, apart from one assessment team; a French assessment team has come in and is starting to do its assessment. Pretty much, though, people at this stage are still fundamentally left to themselves. Among the other difficulties on the island of Nias at the moment, the hospital is likely to be evacuated in the next 24 hours. It was badly damaged in the earthquake. One of the doctors was killed. They're short on medicine. They're simply overwhelmed in any event, and it s been judged to be no longer safe. So an attempt is being made to bring the people who are injured, there are many of them, bring them into a makeshift clinic. The worst of them, the worst hurt of them, are being triaged by experts now. They're being medevacked when helicopters are becoming available. A couple dozen have been moved out already. A few more are expected to be moved out in the next hour or so.

Officially the death toll now starting to edge up from the 330 that was being put in the last 24 hours, it's up now more towards 1,000. I've spoken to a leader of the Chinese community here. He believes that within his community, a minority community, on the island of Nias, there are 300 people who are dead. That might give some indication of the wider death toll. There is, of course, the relief that there was no tsunami this time, but that's precious little relief for the people who today are mourning the loss of entire families in this devastating earthquake.

In Gunungsitoli, on the island of Nias, Indonesia, Hugh Riminton, for CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Other stories we're following in today's world wrap, the Iraq National Assembly is going to try once again this weekend to try to move the new government forward. Negotiators were at work today after yesterday's meeting adjourned without a selection of a parliamentary leader. The body must also choose a president, a prime minister, before moving on to a larger task of drafting then a new national constitution.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is expected to be approved tomorrow as the head of the new World Bank. Despite some initial misgivings among some European leaders, Wolfowitz has assured them that he is committed to the mission of the World Bank in helping to reduce global poverty.

And in Russia's Duma, look at this, fisticuffs, to say the very least. It could cost the deputy speaker his post. They just went after each other. It is a brawl. It was touched off when the deputy speaker alleged voting irregularities in a regional election. The deputy speaker was immediately barred from addressing the Duma for a month. An investigation of this fight was ordered.

KAGAN: We don't expect any fisticuffs just ahead, but we do have a very controversial topics, your rights versus your pharmacist's rights. After the break, I'll talk with two people on opposing sides of a thin line.

SANCHEZ: And what you need to know about your kid's school locker rooms. They could be deadly. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Topping the news in today's "Daily Dose," doctors in Lynchburg, Virginia, are trying to get a better handle on the Reverend Jerry Falwell's health status. The well-known conservative preacher is listed in critical but stable condition at an area hospital. A Falwell assistant says it appears to be a relapse of the viral pneumonia that had him hospitalized for almost two weeks back in February.

To Florida: medical authorities still cannot say for sure if e.Coli was the cause of a 12-year-old girl's death last week. The mysterious outbreak is suspected of infecting nearly 40 people in the state most of them children. Speculation has focused on e.Coli either from livestock, food or some other source, but health officials so far have not reached any conclusions.

SANCHEZ: We want to tell you now about some frightening, potentially fatal illnesses that are starting to show up in some unusual places and among presumably healthy people. CNN's Jason Carroll reports from Houston, Texas, on a bug that some people call the locker room killer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two young men went out to play football. And, just a few days later, both were fighting to stay alive.

KATHY YKEMA, MOTHER: It wasn't until he was on death's doorstop did we even realize how sick he was.

CARROLL: Matthew Ykema played football in a suburb of Houston. Ricky Lannetti played for Lycoming College in Pennsylvania.

THERESA LANNETTI, MOTHER: I just thought he caught something and was really sick and he was going to be OK.

CARROLL: Both young men had contracted what some doctors are calling a super bug, an aggressive bacterial infection called MRSA. It's a mutated strain of staphylococcus, resistant to most antibiotics.

K. YKEMA: I think it's a new silent killer. It just comes so fast and furious.

CARROLL: Doctors have seen it before, but usually in bedridden hospital patients with exposed wounds. Now they're seeing more cases among athletes playing contact sports. MRSA has hit professional football players, high school wrestlers and fencers, few cases as serious as Ricky's and Matthews'.

K. YKEMA: Here we had gone to the emergency room thinking, oh, he'll come home with a brace. And we just didn't understand that he was dying right before our eyes.

DR. SHELDON KAPLAN, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is Matthew's case.

CARROLL: In Matthew's case, MRSA caused dozens of blood clots from his leg to his lungs.

KAPLAN: What is it about this organism that makes it so successful? We just don't know.

CARROLL: Ricky Lannetti's mother says emergency room doctors desperately worked on her son.

LANNETTI: They didn't know what was wrong with him. They had no idea. It was one organ after another just started shutting down on him. And it was that quick. By 7:36 that night, he died.

CARROLL: Doctors think an open sore may have been exposed to MRSA on the field or in a locker room.

LANNETTI: He only lived 21 years, but he had a great life. He was like everything to me. He was my best friend. He was my son.

CARROLL: Doctors still don't know how Matthew became infected.

MATTHEW YKEMA, STUDENT: It gave me a lot of time to think about how valuable life is and how much time you need to spend with family.

CARROLL: Matthew had to give up contact sports. A filter was implanted in his lungs to protect against clots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're feeling pretty blessed.

K. YKEMA: Absolutely. Not a day goes by where we're not just tickled silly to know that Matthew is just a walking miracle.

CARROLL: Doctors watch him closely, as they continue to investigate the deadly bacteria that is still one step ahead of them.

Jason Carroll, CNN, Houston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now to get your daily dose of health news online, just go to our Web site. You will find the latest medical news, the health library, information on diet and fitness as well. The address, cnn.com/health.

Recently the Terri Schiavo case has highlighted the fight between the law and religion.

Up next we'll tackle the issue again, this time between the law and your pharmacist's beliefs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We've got an update now and, we're happy to say, good news on the condition of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. This is a news conference that we've been monitoring in Virginia. These are doctors at Lynchburg General Hospital. They now say that they have upgraded his condition from critical to stable as he continues to recover from a recurrence of pneumonia.

Here's file video that we have of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Doctors say that they have now removed a breathing tube and that the 71-year-old Falwell is breathing on his own. But he still had some fluid in his lungs. In fact, I should say still has some fluid in his lungs, so it's something doctors are going to be watching.

Also another story that we're following at this time: the president of the United States is arriving in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is one of the tours that he's been taking all over the country where the president arrives to talk about his Social Security reform plan. The president there in Cedar Rapids expected to talk soon. We'll be following that for you as well. Daryn, over to you.

KAGAN: Colorado's governor is facing a moral and political dilemma. It's over a bill requiring hospitals to tell rape victims about emergency contraceptive. Governor Bill Owens is a Catholic and a Republican who campaigned on conservative values. He's trying to decide whether to sign the legislation. Fellow Republicans and the Denver archbishop are urging him not to. They say the bill promotes abortion.

The battle over reproductive rights is playing out on another front: your neighborhood pharmacy. Some pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and for morning-after pills on moral and religious grounds. With us this morning from Washington, we have two guests. Stephen Aden, he is with the Christian Legal Society Center for Law and Religious Freedom, which represents some of the pharmacists. And Nancy Keenan. She is president of the pro-choice group NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Good morning to both of you and thank you for being here with us.

NANCY KEENAN, PRESIDENT, NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA: Good morning to you.

STEPHEN ADEN, CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY CENTER FOR LAW AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: Good morning.

KAGAN: Stephen, I want to start with you and have you explain the defense for these pharmacists which are refusing to dispense not illegal drugs, just what they consider to be objectionable medications.

ADEN: Well, there are many pharmacists who have strong spiritual and religious beliefs. That's one of the reasons they go into the healing profession. They are professionals like doctors and nurses. For over 2,000 years the Hippocratic oath has applied and it says "First do no harm." The ethical standards of the profession like other medical professions say, this is the American Pharmacist Association, that the pharmacist has the right of conscience to decline to dispense medication that violates their conscience.

KAGAN: Our time is short, so I want to make sure I get Nancy in here. I would imagine you're going to pick up on the phrase "do no harm." You say some of the women who are showing up for the morning- after pills are being harmed because they're not being able to get access to the medication that they want and that they have a right to.

KEENAN: Absolutely. This is about women being able to walk into a pharmacist and get their birth control pill and actually a decision between their doctor and themselves. And to be denied basic medical care and have your prescription filled is ludicrous in today's society where 95 percent of women have accessed birth control in their lifetime. And to be denied that coming into a pharmacy is unconscionable, especially in rural America where there might only be one pharmacy available for these women to access their prescription.

KAGAN: All right, Stephen, let's bring you back in here. Every job, every person who goes to work for any kind of corporation or any company, there are demands. For instance, if I don't want to get up really early in the morning, then I can't do this job. So if there are demands with a certain job and a pharmacist doesn't do that, why don't they go work someplace else?

ADEN: Well, it's important to recognize that when it comes to religious and spiritual convictions, federal and state law provide protections for the religious rights of workers and requires that they be accommodated in the workforce. Pharmacists are the same way. If there is a system of accommodation in place whereby a patient can go to another pharmacist at the same pharmacy or can go to another pharmacy nearby, then the patient's need is taken care of. The American Pharmacist's Association says that a pharmacist's right of conscience should not be compromised for the sake of a patient's convenience. I think that's what Nancy's arguing for.

KAGAN: And Nancy -- go ahead, Nancy, we'll let you have the last say.

KEENAN: Look, this is an issue about women wanting to come into their pharmacy and access birth control prescribed by their doctor. This is not about being able to go to another pharmacy and make it inconvenient. This is about basic healthcare, women accessing a prescription, birth control. And I think Americans understand that this is ludicrous, that you cannot go into a pharmacy and have somebody decide for you whether or not you should have that prescription or not. It's wrong.

KAGAN: Nancy, tell me where the campaign that your organization -- what they're putting together?

KEENAN: We actually are having women across the country go to their pharmacies and make sure that they have access to birth control and access to their prescriptions. They can go to www.prochoiceamerica.org and find out about the campaign across this country and making sure birth control is available to women, no matter whether you're in rural America or a city in America.

KAGAN: And just to keep it fair, three turns for each side. Stephen, where your defense, stands that point?

ADEN: We're getting close. We're also getting calls from pharmacists across the country who are sometimes being driven out of their profession. I know of several pharmacists who have had to leave their states because of hostility towards their pro-life views. Nancy's position would not result in more medications being dispensed for some women, it would result in fewer pharmacists for all of us.

KAGAN: Two completely opposite opinions, but we knew that when we asked both of you to come on. Thank you for a civil conversation. Stephen Aden and Nancy Keenan.

SANCHEZ: We're going to have a quick weather and business update when we come back, but we're also doing something else. We're checking on a couple of stories. First of all, we told you about what was going on with the Reverend Jerry Falwell.

And now this. We have told you that the president of the United States is going to be arriving in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He's going to be holding a forum there, a town hall meeting as they're often referred to, where he talks about Social Security reform. We'll follow it for you. We'll have the details and we'll be right back right back. Right here on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Thank you. And that's going to do it for us. I'm Daryn Kagan.

SANCHEZ: And I'm Rick Sanchez. Let's head over to Wolf Blitzer now and find out what else is going on on this day and what he has on tap.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com