Reproductive health care “is simply basic health care for women” and “should not be separated out as something unusual” in health reform legislation being crafted in Congress, Elaine Rose, CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes! Washington, writes in a Seattle Times opinion piece. Services such as annual gynecological exams, birth control, breast cancer screenings and pap tests to screen for cervical cancer are “in fact basic health care,” Rose states. In the current U.S. health care system, “women are penalized simply because of their anatomy,” with women of childbearing age paying an average of 68% more in outofpocket health care costs than men “largely because of reproductive health needs,” according to Rose.

“Internationally, it has long been established that offering reproductive health services and information improves the health and wellbeing of women, families and entire communities,” Rose continues. She asks, “Why is it that here our elected officials still struggle to recognize the tremendous value of these services?” She notes that three of Washington states members of Congress Reps. Doc Hastings (R), Dave Reichert (R) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) voted against federal Title X money, “which provides essential, basic health services like contraception and cancer screening to the poorest women in our country.” Rose writes that reproductive health care clinics “are essential community providers for millions of American women,” especially lowincome women. “Research has shown that six out of 10 women who visit a reproductive health care clinic consider it their primary source of health care,” according to Rose. Although some “extremists try to paint Planned Parenthood as strictly an abortion provider, … abortion services make up only 3% of our services in Washington,” with basic preventive health care accounting for the other 97%.

“Lets make sure that in the process of crafting a new way of getting health care to Americans, we dont lose sight of the health care needs of half our population,” Rose writes, adding that women “deserve direct and confidential access to their provider of choice.” She concludes, “They deserve to have all their basic health care needs met. Lets get health care reform right for women” (Rose, Seattle Times, 8/18).

Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Womens Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Womens Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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