Health Care & Reproductive Rights

Roe v. Wade 40th Anniversary

For 40 years women have had the legal right to decide whether or not to have an abortion, yet even today numerous barriers threaten that right.

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Preventive Services in the Health Care Law

Preventive Services in the Health Care Law

This new year, more health plans will come under the reach of the law and will cover certain women's preventive health services with no co-payments.

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This Is Personal

Join the Reproductive Health Campaign

Go to ThisIsPersonal.org to get the facts and tools you need to help protect women's reproductive health.

Join the campaign.
Not in Her Shoes

This is Personal

At 40, Roe v. Wade is more relevant than ever. Tell opponents: no one knows what it's like to be in your shoes.

Share your shoes & thoughts.
Women's Health Report Card 2010

Are we making the grade on women’s health?

Find out how healthy women in your state are and how the new health care law will affect women's health and health policy.

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Roe v. Wade 40th Anniversary
Preventive Services
This Is Personal
Not in Her Shoes
Report Card on Women's Health

Highlights

Fact Sheet | Requiring Crisis Pregnancy Centers to Disclose Limits on Care Is Part of a Long Tradition of Protecting Women’s Decision-making and Access to Reproductive Health Care

April 9, 2013

Women face many obstacles to receiving comprehensive, affordable, quality health care, including when individuals and institutions refuse to provide health care services.   Some even go so far as to refuse to inform women about their health care options or even to notify women that there are certain services or information that they will not provide.  This prevents women from participating fully in their own medical decision-making.  Not only are their rights compromised, their health may be harmed.

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Fact Sheet | Strong Public Support Continues for States to Accept Federal Funds to Cover More Uninsured People Through Medicaid

April 9, 2013

A new national survey sponsored by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the National Women’s Law Center shows strong support among adults 18 and older for their states to accept federal dollars that have been allocated to cover more uninsured people through Medicaid.  The survey, conducted March 15-19, 2013 among 1,016 adults 18 and older, has a margin of error of + 4 percentage points.

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Resource Page | Overview of the Lawsuits Challenging the Affordable Care Act’s No Cost-Sharing Contraceptive Coverage Benefit

April 4, 2013

Full Document with Chart

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Fact Sheet | The Ryan Budget’s Catastrophic Health Cuts and their Impact on Women

March 14, 2013

Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposed budget for fiscal year 2014 includes devastating cuts to the health care programs women and families rely on.  Ryan would repeal the Affordable Care Act, make drastic cuts to Medicaid, and convert Medicare into a voucher program. These changes would leave millions of women and their families without the financial security of high-quality health insurance, unable to access the health care services they need, and facing dramatic increases in their healthcare costs.

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Fact Sheet | Health Care Refusals Harm Patients: The Threat to Reproductive Health Care

January 25, 2013

Across the nation, the personal beliefs of individuals and institutions are interfering with patients’ access to health care.

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Fact Sheet | Even More Than Abortion: The Constitutional Importance of Roe v. Wade and the Right to Privacy

January 18, 2013

Roe did far more than establish the right to abortion; it solidified and expanded the constitutional “right to privacy,” which has also been described as the right to autonomy or to be let alone.  This right to privacy is part of the right to liberty protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which state that no person shall be deprived of “life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”

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More Resources

Webinars & Presentations | January 2012 Reform Matters Conference Call Agenda

January 11, 2012

The January 2012 Reform Matters Call focused on the recently released Essential Health Benefits Bulletin. This resource contains the agenda and materials for the call.

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Legal Briefs & Testimony | Comments on Proposed Health Coverage Affordability Safe Harbor for Employers, IRS Notice 2011-73

December 13, 2011

The National Women's Law Center submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service in response to a notice proposing a safe harbor to protect employers from liability for penalties under the Affordable Care Act when they ensure that coverage is affordable for their employees based on employees’ W-2 wages.  NWLC recommends modifying the proposed safe harbor to better promote access to affordable coverage for employees and their families.

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Fact Sheet | How the Affordable Care Act Helps Women

December 08, 2011

The Affordable Care Act makes important advances for women’s health and, when fully implemented, will provide millions of women and their families with access to high-quality and affordable health care and coverage. While some parts of the law are being phased in over time, there are many provisions that women and families are already benefitting from.

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Webinars & Presentations | December 2011 Reform Matters Conference Call and Agenda

December 07, 2011

The December 2011 Reform Matters conference call focused on the challenge of the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court and other federal updates.

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Fact Sheet | Letter to HHS Secretary on the Development of the Essential Health Benefit Package

December 05, 2011

A variety of consumer groups came together to lay out the principles they believe should guide the development of the Essential Health Benefit package. In the letter, we ask the Secretary to ensure the creation of a benefit package that addresses the insufficient coverage currently sold in the individual and small group markets and that covers the physical, mental, and behavioral health care services that people need to get and stay as healthy and functional as possible.

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