Stand Up South Dakota: Planned Parenthood

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Women Struggling to Afford Care

From Tuesday's Argus Leader

By Shannon Stevens

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released a new report placing a spotlight on the impact that the nation's health care crisis is having on women, particularly women of childbearing age.

The report, titled "Roadblocks to health care: Why the current health care system does not work for women," states that "women are more vulnerable to high health care costs ... (because) women's reproductive health requires more regular contact with health care providers, including yearly Pap tests, mammograms and obstetric care."

The report from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius underscores the real need to ensure that women have access to quality, affordable reproductive health care as part of any health reform effort. The findings of the report reaffirm what we see firsthand at Planned Parenthood health centers every day when women turn to us for affordable, accessible, high-quality preventive care.

Planned Parenthood health centers in our region are seeing an increase in patients who have lost their jobs or their health insurance or who no longer have the money to pay for lifesaving medical care. Some women are deferring annual exams, including preventive cancer screenings, and buying fewer cycles of contraception.

To get a sense of how widespread the need for health care reform is, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Commonwealth Fund say there are 45.7 million Americans without health insurance and an additional 25 million who are underinsured.

On top of that, one in five nonelderly women is underinsured, and more than 17 million women need publicly supported reproductive health care, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Guttmacher Institute.

According to the Women's Research and Education Institute, women of childbearing age spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men in part because of reproductive health-related supplies and services. A recent survey conducted for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that women are delaying their annual exams as a result of the economic downturn.

Here in South Dakota, having a job doesn't mean having health insurance. In fact, 72 percent of the uninsured are employed. According to the Center for American Progress, only North Dakota and New Hampshire have higher rates of workers without health coverage.

As health care providers, we know firsthand that women are disproportionately affected by the economic downturn and in tough times will put many things before their own basic health care.We know sexually transmitted infections continue to pose a serious public health threat in the country, particularly to young women. Without detection and treatment, these infections can lead to serious short- and long-term health consequences, including infertility.

The demand for health care is urgent, and the value of prevention, a cornerstone of Planned Parenthood services, is self-evident.As state and federal governments consider reforms to our health care system, we all have a critical interest in not only maintaining access to quality health care services for our patients but also in expanding access to all in need of comprehensive health care in order to build healthier, stronger families.

Additional Facts
MY VOICE
Shannon Stevens, 32, of Sioux Falls is the South Dakota public affairs manager for Planned Parenthood Minnesota/South Dakota.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Clinton Says Women's Rights Important

From the Associated Press
By JUAN A. LOZANO

Helping women's reproductive and health rights flourish is an important part of U.S. efforts to develop democracy around the world and defeat extremism, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a speech Friday.

"A society that denies and demeans women's rights and roles is a society that is more likely to engage in behavior that is negative, anti-democratic and leads to violence and extremism," Clinton said at Planned Parenthood Federation of America's national conference in Houston.
Clinton spoke to the organization after being honored for her work on behalf of women's health and reproductive rights. She was endorsed by Planned Parenthood during her unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

She told the conference women's reproductive and health rights will be key issues in President Barack Obama's foreign policy.

Only a few hours earlier, Clinton had been in Washington, D.C., for President Obama's announcement he was deploying 4,000 more U.S. military troops into Afghanistan as part of an effort to defeat al-Qaida terrorists in that country and in neighboring Pakistan.

"As we integrate our military and civilian assets with a mission for disrupting and defeating al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, we cannot lose sight that assisting women's development in those countries is part of America's strategy to be successful," she said.

Clinton said there are models tied to infant mortality rates that can predict which regions in the world experience political upheaval.

"Countries with higher infant mortality rates are more susceptible to political upheaval," she said. "It's connected to a lower quality of life and a lower quality of life is a byproduct of inadequate health care and inadequate family planning options."

Clinton said she was grateful for being given Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger Award the organization's highest honor. It is named after the group's founder.

A short video before Clinton's speech highlighted some of her work in support of women's reproductive and health rights, including: A 1995 speech Clinton delivered while first lady during the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing in which she criticized China, without naming it directly, for the practice of sterilization and forced abortion, and for preventing many women from attending or participating fully in the conference. Her efforts in 2006, when she was a U.S. senator from New York, to block the confirmation of then President Bush's nominee for Food and Drug Administration commissioner until the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill.

Clinton's visit to Houston capped off a busy week of travel for the secretary of state.
Earlier this week, she visited Mexico for two days after President Obama's administration pledged to send more money, technology and manpower to secure the border in the U.S. Southwest and help Mexico battle drug cartels.

While in Mexico, Clinton pledged the U.S. would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Mexico in its violent struggle against the cartels.