Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania works to educate and empower people as advocates for key issues effecting reproductive health care and individual choice. PPSP's advocacy work on the local, state and federal levels addresses a range of issues including health care reform and comprehensive sexuality eduation. Advocacy is an integral part of PPSP's mission and allows us to continue offering accessible and affordable quality health care to men, women, and teens.
Federal Issues
- Birth Control Matters
- Health Care Reform
- Funding for Comprehensive Sexuality Education Programs
- Prevention First Action
Birth Control Matters Planned Parenthood, in partnership with other organizations, is working to guarantee women have access to contraceptives through the preventive care provision in the new health care reform law. Sign the petition today! For more information, visit the Birth Control Matters campaign website.
Health Care Reform
In March 2010, after months of debate, President Obama signed the final health care reform bill into law, representing a historic achievement for all Americans and for women’s health. The new law, (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act):
- extends coverage to tens of millions of individuals who are currently uninsured
- guarantees women access to affordable lifesaving screenings for preventive care including family planning.
- creates funding for comprehensive, evidence-based sex education programs.
- prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions or charging higher premiums based on gender.
Reproductive rights advocates successfully defeated the biggest threat to women’s access to comprehensive coverage under health care: the Stupak abortion ban which would have prohibited private insurance plans from covering abortion.
While the law has many positive provisions, it also has negative impacts. The law:
- includes dangerous language known as the Nelson provision which makes it more difficult for individuals to find and purchase private insurance that covers abortion. It requires health plans that cover abortion to collect two private payments from all enrollees – one payment for abortion cover and one payment for all other coverage.
- includes $50 million for abstinence-only education. While President Obama eliminated funding for these types of programs from his proposed budget, the inclusion in the health care reform law reinstates this funding.
It is clear there are still barriers to overcome. Overall, this law represents a major step forward for women’s health, taking its place in American history alongside passage of the Medicare and Medicaid bills.
Locally, Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania was active in defeating the Stupak amendment through work with the Raising Women’s Voices of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a local coalition aimed at protecting women’s health through health care reform.
For more information on health care reform implementation in Pennsylvania, visit our state issues page.
Funding for Comprehensive Sexuality Education Progams
Planned Parenthood is working with federal legislators to ensure that failing absitnence-only programs do not receive federal funding in the future. Taking a step in the right direction, President Barack Obama eliminated abstience only funding from his FY2010 budget. However, it was reinstated through the new health care reform law. We will be watching this issue very closely in the near future.
Prevention First Act
The Prevention First Act (S.21/H.R.463) symbolizes our shared commitment to supporting healthy families through commonsense prevention measures. It is an omnibus family planning initiative that expands access to preventive health care services and education programs to help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and improve women’s health — all while saving scarce public health dollars. The bill includes measures to:
- fully fund Title X
- expand access to services through Medicaid
- require equity in contraceptive insurance coverage
- protect rape survivors’ access to emergency contraception (EC) in the emergency room (ER)
- improve awareness about EC generally
- protect teens’ health through medically accurate, real sex education
Improving access to contraception and preventive health care should be a shared national goal. As a nation, if we are committed to reducing the number of abortions in America, the most effective way to do so is to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by increasing both the availability of contraception, preventive health care programs and teen pregnancy prevention initiatives.
