There are those who assert that unintended pregnancy is not a health condition and therefore prevention of unintended pregnancy is not preventive health care. From my personal practice I can say that I cannot disagree more.
I firmly believe the requirements under the Affordable Care Act, and the slate of regulations being created to implement it, infringe on no one’s conscience, demand no one change her or his religious beliefs, discriminate against no man or woman, put no additional economic burden on the poor, interfere with no one’s medical decisions, compromise no one’s health -- that is, if you consider the law without refusal clauses.
Up until the latter half of the twentieth century, arguments against abortion focused primarily on enforcing traditional gender roles for women, not on "saving babies." We need to reclaim the debate by focusing on women.
In preparation for what may eventually be another Lila Rose grainy expose trumpeted by the Right, it’s helpful to brush up on where millions and millions of tax-dollars are going to pay for sex “education:” ineffective and stigmatizing abstinence-only-until marriage programs.
Good options counseling requires a mix of concrete information and careful listening so that individuals can decide which alternative best meets their needs. That’s why one former patient gets so riled up when conservatives condemn Planned Parenthood: “I want these legislators to know that my three-year-old is here, not despite, but because of, Planned Parenthood."
People who participate in clinical trials take the enormous step of volunteering to test a product that may be useful and, sometimes, life-saving if it turns out to be effective. They play an irreplaceable role in research to prevent, treat, and sometimes cure illness – as well as to find other ways to improve people’s health and lives.
