Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

As Americans celebrate and reflect on the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling 42 years ago, I urge Congress and state legislators to listen to doctors and medical experts who know that legal abortion is safe, and that politicians should not interfere in personal medical decisions.

Despite the fact that abortion is one of the safest medical procedures in the United States and is supported by the majority of Americans, we’re seeing more and more legislation moving forward at both the state and federal level designed to restrict access. As the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood knows how dangerous these restrictions are for women, and that’s why we’re urging Congress and state legislators to listen to doctors when it comes to policies that affect women’s health.

Half of all pregnancies in the U.S. each year are unintended, and four in 10 of these are ended by medically safe, legal abortions. However, the abortion rate in 2011 (the latest year for which national data is available) was the lowest rate since 1973, and much of this decrease is attributable to improved contraception.

Data, including from the CDC, shows that abortion has over a 99 percent safety record. Studies show women experience major complications less than one percent of the time. In the rare cases when complications do occur, they are similar to those that may occur from miscarriage, which ob-gyns and other physicians treat every day. Abortion has no impact on a woman’s future pregnancies.

Forty-two years after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Roe v. Wade, significantly more Americans want the landmark abortion decision kept in place rather than overturned. Seventy-eight percent believe abortion should be legal in certain or all circumstances. Rather than approaching access to reproductive health care as a divisive “social issue,” many voters recognize that abortion access is connected to women’s financial stability. For example, over 80 percent of voters polled in New York and Pennsylvania agree that a woman’s ability to control the timing of her job and family is a fundamental component of women’s equality.

In order to ensure abortion remains safe and legal for future generations, we must replace misinformation with the facts and start having honest conversations about abortion in America today. Here at Planned Parenthood, we are offer abortion services, and we ensure that women have accurate information about all of their options. Ultimately, decisions about whether to choose adoption, end a pregnancy, or raise a child must be left to a woman with the counsel of her health care provider, her family, and her faith.

 

Reina Schiffrin

President/CEO

Source

Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, Inc.

Published

January 21, 2015

Updated

March 12, 2015

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of required cookies when utilizing our site; this includes necessary cookies that help our site to function (such as remembering your cookie preference settings). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.