Repro Health Hub

Since the spring of 2007, women of New Orleans have had a new place to access much- needed, affordable women’s health services. The New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic (NOWHC), a project of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence New Orleans, opened its doors in May of 2007 with the mission:

“To equip marginalized and underserved women with the means to control and care for their own bodies, sexuality and reproduction through a holistic, community-centered well women approach to healthcare which integrates sexual health and reproductive justice.”

Their opening came in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which left many previously marginalized and underserved women with even less access to basic women’s health services. Not surprisingly, recovery efforts have been slow (one year after the storm, all the public family planning and STD clinics remained closed leaving 15,000 without care). However, the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic has been proactive—not waiting for a previously lacking healthcare infrastructure to be rebuilt. 

Instead, they are challenging the accepted norms of sub-par care and offering an alternative comprehensive model of care to the women of New Orleans, regardless of their ability to pay. Since opening less than two years ago, NOWHC has served over 350 clients, offering a sliding scale for services through their Women’s Health Fund. The sliding scale at NOWHC puts health services within the reach of many women who otherwise could not afford them. Currently NOWHC offers a range of women’s health services including pap smears, pelvic exams, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy testing, preliminary obstetric visits, and contraceptive services. Recent partnerships with the Latino Health Outreach Project and CAMP ACE have also allowed for Spanish language services as well as free HIV testing at the clinic on a weekly basis.  

In addition to the health services offered, NOWHC is more than a place to access affordable care. As Shana Griffin, organizer with INCITE! New Orleans explained in an August 2006 interview:

“It’s more than providing healthcare services it’s also about challenging the conditions that limit our access and our opportunities, such as poverty, racism, gender-based violence, imperialism, and war. We see it as more than just a clinic, we want it to also be an organizing center that can meet immediate needs while also working for racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice.”

If you’re interested in advancing the goals and efforts of NOWHC, send an email to nowhc_info@yahoo.com for more information on ways you can help. 

The Center for Disease Control has just published a new report, and we don’t like the results one bit. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 teenage girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted infection. Here is a breakdown of the findings according to the Wall Street Journal: 

“An estimated 3.2 million girls ages 14 to 19, or about 26% of that age group, are infected, and the rate is highest among black girls, the study found. Nearly half the blacks surveyed had at least one sexually transmitted infection, compared with 20% among both whites and Mexican-American teens. The vast majority — about 18% — were infected with strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, that can cause genital warts and cervical cancer, the CDC said.”

The 2008 National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago, where this important information was officially announced today, provided revealing information about contraceptive use and STI testing among young girls. The CDC released findings from a separate study that showed that even though most (82%) sexually active 15 to 24 year old women received contraceptive or STD/HIV services, only 39% receive both which indicates that many women at high risk are not receiving necessary prevention services. 

So why, exactly, are these numbers so shockingly high?  

What many people, including Planned Parenthood of America, consider the root of the problem is the lack of comprehensive sex education. “The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure and teenage girls are paying the real price,” the organization’s president Cecile Richards said. 

What is probably most staggering is the racial disparity these studies show. Of the total amount of chlamydia cases, young black women were found to make up nearly half of the cases. The director of the CDC’s STD prevention division John Douglas points to limited access to health care as a possible cause, an obstacle that creates delays in seeking care, fewer doctors visits, and is completely unacceptable. 

How do we combat these STI rates? With the help of organizations like the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS). The advocacy group has a strong record of providing accurate information and comprehensive education about sexuality, sexual health, and sexual rights. For the past 40 years SIECUS has been pushing for effective public policy in sex-related issues and created much needed (as the CDC has shown) reliable sexual health information for educators, health professionals, and communities around the country.

Yesterday marked the 12^th annual Nation Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers and we’d like to say a very big thank you to all of the reproductive health care providers out there. 

 The day was initiated in 1996 following the beginning of violent attacks against health physicians and doctors who worked to provide American women with safe and accessible procedures. It began as a tribute to the death of Dr. David Gunn of  Florida in 1993, the first of many killings of physicians by anti-abortionists. This sad history of violence and prosecution perpetuated by ideological extremists is a reality that abortion providers still face and risk every day, so we say thank you. 

We’d like to take the opportunity to highlight some organizations and clinics that work hard to provide women with accessible reproductive health services, from birth control to safe abortion procedures. Their efforts and services are the core to making the right to choose possible for women everywhere. 

 California – The Women’s Community Clinic
Colorado – Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center
Georgia – The Feminist Center
Iowa – The Emma Goldman Clinic  
Maine – Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Clinic  
Minnesota – Midwest Health Center for Women   
New Jersey – Women’s Choice Medical Center  
Washington – Cedar River Clinics
West Virginia – Women’s Health Center of West Virginia  

If you would like to show your support for American health care providers, please sign the National Abortion Federation’s online petition.  

U.S. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana finally got his discriminatory bill passed on February 26, 2008, a bill that essentially does nothing but verify that pro-life politicians have the wrong idea on how to decrease abortion rates.   

The Vitter Amendment limits abortion funding by Indian Health Services (IHS), which is the government-funded source of health care for Native Americans.  The Hyde Amendment already prohibits Indian Health Services from providing funds for abortions, as it does for federally funded Medicaid, except in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment.  Basically, the Vitter Amendment was put into place to absorb the language of the Hyde Amendment into a more specific context, if in fact Hyde becomes overturned in the future.   

Vitter explains his amendment as an effort to “close the loophole” of the Hyde Amendment, which “has allowed [abortion funding] to continue in certain instances.”  However, the amendment maintains the same three exceptions as under the Hyde Amendment. As a redundant bill, the Vitter Amendment does nothing to introduce new anti-abortion legislation, nor does it do anything to actively address the fact that Native American women have some of the highest teen pregnancy rates.  Worst, Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted. 

Good work on not assessing the matter at hand and taking away help from women that need it the most, Vitter.  American democracy at its finest. 

Our young and determined friends over at Choice USA and Advocates for Youth always make us so proud! The two organizations have been hard at work to make Emergency Contraception (EC) available to everyone, and they need your help!  

At this very moment the Center for Reproductive Rights has a lawsuit against the FDA to reverse its decision that limits women’s access to EC without prescription, claiming that the decision was based around political agenda rather than science. The heat is on the FDA right now- and with your help, we can change their policy.  

A petition is available online so be sure to sign it, send it to your friends, send it to your family -  in fact, send it to everyone you know and tell them to pass it along too!  You can also collect signatures the old fashioned way. Simply download the Petition Kit PDF and ask your neighbors and loved ones to put down their names and contact info. Just be sure to return the petition to Choice USA by March 7^th, 2008. 

The goal is 10,000 hard copy signatures by March 7^th, 2008 - so act fast and spread the word.

On Thursday, March 6^th NARAL Pro-Choice New York will co-sponsor an event called “Universal Health Care: Will Women’s Needs Be Met?”

Participating co-sponsors range from other repro health organizations to student public health groups.  The event will be held from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at New York University’s Silver Center, Room 408.  While universal health care is gaining national attention through campaign platforms and reform movements, women’s rights advocates are left wondering how women’s health will fit into the picture.  The event’s panel will address how women’s rights will come into play during the legislative process of New York State reform, which policies will most protect women’s health, and what advocates should be doing to ensure that women’s voices are heard.   

The panelists will include Byllye Avery, Founder of the Black Women’s Health Imperative and President of the Avery Institute for Social Change, Elisabeth Benjamin, Director of Healthcare Restructuring Initiatives for Community Service Society, Richard Gottfried, Chair of the New York State Commission on Health, and Lois Uttley, Director of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need.  The event is open to all who are interested in health care reform, including students, advocates, and the general public. 

Those who would like to attend should RSVP to Carolyn Fraker (cfraker@prochoiceny.org) by March 3, 2008. 

Ever since the pivotal, nail biting 2006 vote to kick out the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, we had high hopes for the future of reproductive rights in South Dakota.  

Until this week.  

The progressive interest in women’s health that South Dakotans beautifully displayed over a year ago apparently went unheard by the state legislature as they struck down the “Birth Control Protection Act” 12-22. If passed, the bill would have protected reproductive rights by amending the existing law that gives immunity to pharmacists who deny their patients birth control. Instead, pharmacists and health care providers remain free to impose their own moral beliefs on those seeking contraceptives and block access to medication.

Efforts to counter the measure have been supported by the local chapter of Planned Parenthood. Sarah Stoesz, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota responded to the decision by saying: 

 “The Birth Control Protection Act  would have ensured that women and couples had greater opportunities to prevent unintended pregnancy by making birth control accessible and limiting government intrusion into personal, private health matters. This is a missed opportunity to take a positive, concrete step toward reducing unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion in South Dakota.”  

 The organization maintains the Stand Up South Dakota campaign to petition the state to protect accessibility to contraceptives and comprehensive sex ed in South Dakota. Make sure to check it out.

Members of the Hyde 30 Years is Enough Campaign delivered thousands of petition signatures to Congress today asking for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment!

 The Hyde Amendment, as many of you know, is an egregious policy that prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from being used to pay for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest and danger to the life of the woman. This horrific policy has left many women without access to needed care. 

The Hyde 30 Years is Enough Coalition, spearheaded by the National Network of Abortion Funds, is working to change this policy. As part of a multi-pronged approach that demonstrates its grassroots support across the country, the campaign gathered over 12,500 petition signatures calling on Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment. Activists from the coalition brought the petitions to Congress today and delivered their important message that indeed, 30 years is enough! 

For more information about the coalition and how to get involved, check out their website.     

- Myra Batchelder 

The Guttmacher Institute just released an unbelievably useful and thorough new study examining the results from their census of abortion providers nationwide. Guttmacher has conducted this study regularly since the 1970s.  The 2005 study surveyed 1,787 abortion providers. The full study is available online here and more information, including state-specific fact sheets, can be found online here.  

Some of the key findings from the census include: 

The abortion rate in the United States continues to decline. In 2005, the U.S. abortion rate fell to its lowest level since 1974, with a rate of 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44. The abortion rate peaked at 29.3 in 1981 and has steadily declined ever since. 

The number of abortion providers continues to decline, though at a slower rate than in previous years. The number of abortion providers in the United States fell 2% from 1,819 in 2000 to 1,787 in 2005. This decline is one of the reasons why women continue to face difficulty in accessing a needed provider. Nearly 35% of women ages 15 to 44 were living in one of the 87% of counties nationwide that did not have an abortion provider in 2005.  

Medication abortion (mifepristone) use is growing. The proportion of all abortions that are medication abortion procedures increased substantially between 2000 and 2005, with more providers offering the service even when they do not offer surgical abortion services. In total, medication abortion accounted for 13% of all abortions and 22% of eligible abortions (before nine weeks’ gestation) in 2005. 

More effort is needed to reduce unintended pregnancy and abortion. Despite recent declines in abortion rates, slightly more than one in five pregnancies ended in abortion in 2005, indicating that much more still needs to be done to help women and their partners avoid unintended pregnancy. Half of American women aged 15-44 have experienced an unintended pregnancy, and about one in three will have had an abortion by the time they reach age 45.  

Much Kudos to Guttmacher for releasing this valuable information; make sure to check it out!  

By Myra Batchelder

It looks like Iowa has been in dire need of reproductive health services, until now.  Here’s a few not-so-fun facts about Iowa’s report card on repro health:

• Iowa ranks 48th in the nation in making family planning services available
• It ranks 39th in its public funding for family planning
• More than half of Iowa’s counties do not have family planning services.
• Half of all pregnancies in Iowa in 2006 were unintended.

In short, Iowa is not on the top list of family planning provider states. But something is finally being done about it, thanks to former first lady Christie Vilsack, whose determination has resulted in the recent launch of the Iowa Initiative to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies.

The organization’s goal is to broaden family planning services to the people who need them, and disseminate information to Iowans about contraception and family planning through public education outreach.

“As a woman and a mother, I believe we have a responsbility to give all women in our state the knowledge  and means to prevent unintended pregnancies,” says Vilsack. “Access in family planning results in better lives for women, children and families and the greater Iowa community.”

Amen. The best of luck to Vilsack and the Iowa Initiative! Click here for more info on this fantastic (and much-needed) project.