Access to Abortion Care

Planned Parenthood believes every woman should have access to the full range of reproductive health care services, including access to safe abortion care.

Planned Parenthood’s primary goal is prevention — reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, especially the alarmingly high number of teenage pregnancies, in the United States. That’s why it is important that every woman have access to affordable birth control, so she can choose and consistently use the method that works for her. At the same time, women facing an unintended pregnancy must have access to safe, legal abortion care. Deciding whether to end a pregnancy is a personal and private decision, and should be made by a woman in consultation with her family and doctor — not by politicians.

Unfortunately, some politicians are proposing and passing onerous restrictions, and, in some instances, backdoor bans on women’s access to abortion care at both the federal and state levels. Some of the bills proposed in 2011 have been the most extreme anti-women’s health legislation we’ve ever seen.

Some of the unprecedented attacks on women’s access to safe abortion care include:

• Mandatory ultrasounds before women can get an abortion— even on victims of rape. Some policies additionally require physicians to force a woman to view the ultrasound, and deliver politically motivated statements to the woman, even if she declines to view or listen to them.
• Mandatory waiting periods of up to 72 hours prior to an abortion, after a woman’s initial consultation with her doctor and a requirement to attend biased counseling from an unlicensed, unaccredited, and unregulated “crisis pregnancy center.”

• Banning private insurance coverage of abortion care, and in turn taking away the comprehensive insurance coverage most women currently have.

Access to abortion care is essential women’s health care – constitutionally protected, and consistently supported by a majority of Americans; yet anti-choice policymakers have made it increasingly hard for women to access needed care.

Watch what your elected officials are saying and see where they stand on the important issue of ensuring that women have access to the full range of reproductive health care services.

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