ReproWrites: September/October 2008 Issue 6

Table of Contents

• 
  Why Public Funding for Birth Control?
  


• Glossary: Special Rapporteurs/Representatives
  


• Abortion Providers as Human Rights Defenders
  


• Abortion: From Bans to Human Rights
  


• Q and A: Khiara M. Bridges
  


• News You May Have Missed and New Publications

Why Public Funding for Birth Control?

Did you know that:

1 in 4 American women who receive family planning services do
so at a publicly funded clinic?

Of the approximately 7 million women who receive family planning
services from these clinics every year, 67% have incomes below
the federal poverty level?

Publicly funded family planning services prevent an estimated
1.4 million unintended pregnancies in the U.S. every year?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is proposing new regulations that could allow a receptionist in a federally funded health clinic to refuse to make an appointment for a woman seeking contraception?

The draft regulations could have a devastating impact on the ability of lowincome women to get the services and information they need to make their own decisions about their reproductive lives. In September, the Center urged HHS to drop the proposed rules in extensive comments submitted together with two allied groups and endorsed by 50 other organizations.

Expanding access to birth control for all women is a key goal of the Center’s Federal Policy Agenda. It will also be the focus of a summit on November 21—organized by the Center, the National Institute for Reproductive Health, and the National Health Law Program—that will bring advocates and experts from across the country together to address barriers to contraception for low-income women.

Download the issue to read more.