On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed every woman's
right to make her own medical decisions without government
interference. At the time, the Supreme Court recognized the inherent
right to privacy for women, an urgent issue given that women were dying
in emergency rooms across the country from self-induced abortions.
But today, women across the nation are disturbed to see a set of
politicians doing everything they can to undermine this landmark
decision that has stood as a critical safeguard for women's health for
four decades.
Last year, anti-women's health politicians across the country
launched what was surely the most aggressive assault on women's rights
since the Roe decision was handed down. The scope of their attacks has
been mindboggling. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2011, state
legislatures passed more than triple the number of anti-women's health
laws than in 2010 -- the highest ever. Twenty-four states enacted 92 new
abortion restrictions last year, shattering the previous record of 34 adopted in 2005.
Behind these numbers, real women are feeling the impact. For example,
just a year ago, women living in rural Arizona could count on
high-quality and compassionate
abortion
care in their own communities. But now, due to anti-women's health laws
passed in that state last year, those women will have to travel long
distances -and presumably go out of state in some instances - for safe,
legal
abortion
care. That means time away from work, transportation costs, someone to
take care of the kids - it all adds up to an additional burden on women
who are already going through a very stressful experience.
Ironically, just last week, Guttmacher reported that in countries where
abortion is illegal - which we are close to becoming -
abortion
rates are actually higher. Contrary to what anti-women's health
politicians would have us believe, evidence shows that restricting
access to safe, legal
abortion care does not lower
abortion rates. It just forces women to search for clandestine and
unsafe abortion care. And, according to the World Health Organization, complications from
unsafe abortion account for an estimated 13 percent of all maternal deaths worldwide.
The best way to reduce the need for
abortion
is to reduce unintended pregnancy. But in the U.S., politicians are
also increasingly putting up roadblocks to access preventive care,
including the
birth control
that helps women avoid unintended pregnancy. In fact, in the past year,
the House of Representatives and extreme state legislatures have worked
to cut many women off from access to
birth control and lifesaving cancer screenings for breast and cervical cancer.
Women have another idea. We think that when women have access to preventive care --including
birth control, breast exams, and pap smears -- it is good for women, good for their families, and good for America.
So this year, Women are Watching. It's our campaign to spread the
word about these unprecedented attacks on women's health and to let the
public know where candidates stand on pivotal health care issues. By
empowering one another to hold politicians accountable for what they say
and do, we can cast informed votes for candidates who support women and
women's health.
By the looks of things, we've got a lot of work ahead of us. With
November in their sights, the crop of GOP presidential candidates have
zeroed in on women's health and rights. In a reckless political game,
every one of them has vowed to overturn Roe and take away the right to
safe and legal
abortion care for women in America -- even in the case of rape or incest.
And they aren't stopping there. In complete defiance of the majority
of Americans, these candidates want to prohibit women from getting
birth control
and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood health centers. They want
to end the nation's family planning program, which provides preventive
care to more than five million women and men, and cut off access to
birth control
for women who need it the most. They want to end health care for
millions by repealing the Affordable Care Act. They even support
so-called "personhood" measures, declaring a fertilized egg a person,
which could result in outlawing
birth control,
in vitro fertilization (IVF), and abortion, even in the case of rape or
incest. It's become a national race to the bottom to see who can be the
worst possible president for women.
In short, a whole class of elected officials currently in office is
dead set on turning back the clock nearly half a century. And another
band of them is waiting in the wings - with their eyes on the White
House.
Opposing Roe and essential women's health care isn't just bad
policy
-- it's bad politics. That's because Americans agree with the
protection that Roe provides. Polling consistently reaffirms that a
majority of Americans support a woman's right to make her own decisions
about pregnancy in consultation with her doctor and her family.
Politicians who oppose this firmly held notion are swimming against the
tide, putting themselves outside the mainstream.
So, as Roe heads into its 40th year as a touchstone for women's
health -- and the opportunity, equality, and self-determination that
health brings -- women are standing up and taking note of who is
supporting their best interests and who is playing politics with their
health and lives. And they are raising their voices to let their leaders
know that this is not a game.
We must continue to raise those voices and keep the pressure on.
Every day, from now through November, we need to remind politicians that
women are watching. We see what they are doing. We hear what they are
saying. And we vo
Source: Cecile Richards, RH Reality Check, January 23, 2012.
