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

Fact Sheet | Women’s Access to Preventive Services Affirmed by HHS

February 22, 2013

On February 20, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services released a set of Frequently Asked Questions which clarified many issues related to implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s preventive services requirement.  The FAQ is an important step towards ensuring that insurance plans and issuers implement the Women’s Preventive Health Services provision so that women get the comprehensive and affordable services guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act.  While the FAQ leaves some implementation questions unanswered, the National Women’s Law Center is pleased that the Department addressed several major issues to make sure that women have the coverage required by the law.  The charts below summarize implementation issues and how the FAQ responds to them.

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Fact Sheet | Coverage of the Women’s Preventive Health Services: Calling Your Student Health Plan

February 01, 2013

We’ve updated our materials on calling your insurance plan. Please visit this page.

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Fact Sheet | Contraceptive Coverage in the Health Care Law: Frequently Asked Questions

February 01, 2013

The health care law makes preventive care more accessible and affordable to millions of Americans. This is especially important to women, who are more likely than men to avoid needed health care, including preventive care, because of cost. To help address these cost barriers and make sure all women have access to preventive health care, one section of the health care law requires all new and non-grandfathered private insurance plans to cover a wide range of preventive services, including services such as mammograms, pap smears, smoking prevention and contraceptives without co-payments or other cost sharing requirements.

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Fact Sheet | Women’s Preventive Services in the Affordable Care Act: Frequently Asked Questions

February 01, 2013

The health care law makes preventive care more accessible and affordable to millions of Americans. This is especially important to women, who are more likely than men to go without necessary health care, including preventive care, because of cost. To help address these cost barriers and make sure all women have access to preventive health care, the health care law requires all new and non-grandfathered private insurance plans to cover a wide range of preventive services without co-payments or other cost sharing requirements.

 Read more...

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.

 Read more...