In Pennsylvania, the state legislature has launched a full-scale attack on women’s health with numerous bills aimed at restricting access to vital reproductive services. For example, the legislature is working on unnecessary, politically motivated abortion regulations that single out women’s health centers and put more women at risk.
Spread the word
|
|
Pennsylvania is rapidly following the path of Kansas, Texas, and Mississippi, making it one of the most restrictive states in the nation for women’s reproductive health care.
New TRAP legislation — Targeted Regulations for Abortion Providers — would require major architectural changes to health center buildings such as widening hallways and doorways, substantially increasing elevator capacity, and landscaping changes to mimic hospitals, none of which are grounded in sound science. Regulations that protect the health and safety of patients are critical, but these backdoor attempts to ban abortion create barriers to health care and put more women at risk.
As if trying to shut down women’s health centers weren’t enough, lawmakers are even proposing to strip women of insurance coverage for abortion care and require women seeking abortion care to receive state-mandated information and experience what could be an invasive ultrasound.
Is this about improving or protecting women’s health? No. These politically motivated regulations would jeopardize patient access to a wide range of reproductive health care services beyond abortion, including lifesaving cancer screenings, preventive family planning care, and STI prevention and treatment.
In fact, this bill is designed to restrict — and ultimately eliminate — abortion care for thousands of Pennsylvanians at Planned Parenthood and other women’s health providers.
These attempts to restrict women’s access to reproductive health care are a result of the 2010 elections during which the state house flipped from a pro-women’s health majority to an anti-choice majority, and a pro-women's health governor was replaced by anti-women's health governor.
The real abortion battle isn't on the Hill. It's in the states
In the last 10 years, Planned Parenthood health centers in Pennsylvania have served almost 1.5 million women and men.
The number of cervical cancer screenings - detecting over 5,000 abnormal pap tests which if untreated can lead to cancer
The number of breast exams Planned Parenthood provided in Pennsylvania.
The number of STD tests Planned Parenthood provided in Pennsylvania.
Spread the word | |