Archive for the 'Laura Hessburg' Category

Let’s Not Reverse Our Progress on Stopping HIV/AIDS

Published on March 10, 2011 in Health Care, Laura Hessburg, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 0 Comments Tags: .

Laura Hessburg, Senior Health Policy Advisor

Today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, when we should all pause to remember that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still shaping and taking too many lives, in the United States and around the globe.

Unfortunately, the callous “war on women” being waged by leaders in the House of Representatives, which includes shameful attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and Title X family planning services, threatens to cause grave harm to people who are HIV-positive.

Consider this: In the United States, HIV affects nearly 280,000 women. Analyses by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) show that HIV is most prevalent among those living in low-income communities. There are strong links between HIV and poverty. The American HIV/AIDS epidemic is also characterized by strong racial and ethnic disparities, with people of color significantly more likely to be infected than those who are White.

Women with low incomes and women of color rely even more heavily than others on Title X-funded clinics as their health care safety net.

Title X clinics are indispensable in the fight against HIV. A government review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) once concluded that “[w]omen who utilize Title X… services as their primary source of health care have significantly greater odds of receiving contraceptive services and/or care for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than women who utilize private physicians or HMOs.”

In 2009, Title X providers performed more than six million tests for STIs, including nearly one million HIV tests.  Services funded through Title X  include essential counseling and education on HIV and other reproductive health issues.  This education is key to preventing the further spread of HIV, especially at a time when the CDC estimates that one in five people living with HIV infection in the United States do not know they are infected.

If Congress eliminates funding for Title X and Planned Parenthood, women’s health will suffer terribly. Efforts to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic will be hampered.  New HIV and other STI infections will go undetected.  Even more people with HIV will go without the treatment that can save their lives.

We are counting on the Senate and President Obama to stand strong for women and their families, and block all measures that will harm women’s health.

Please tell your Senators to prioritize women’s health and ensure that all women have access to the reproductive health services they need.

Celebrating ella

Published on August 19, 2010 in Laura Hessburg and Reproductive Health. 1 Comment
Laura Hessburg

Laura Hessburg

On average, women spend at least 30 years being sexually active but trying to avoid pregnancy. That’s an awfully long time considering no contraceptive is 100% effective and things don’t always work out as planned.

That’s why we’re thrilled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new emergency contraceptive product that will be known as ella.  When trying to avoid unintended pregnancy, having another type of safe and effective emergency contraception will increase the likelihood that a woman can quickly access a product that works well for her situation.

Ella is an FDA-approved contraceptive– not, as some contraception opponents claim, an abortion pill – and it is highly effective at preventing pregnancy for up to five days after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure. It works by inhibiting or delaying ovulation.

The FDA’s decision to approve ella was based entirely on scientific evidence, and we think it’s terrific that politics didn’t get in the way of science. Perhaps there is hope that the FDA will have the integrity to remove the baseless and harmful age restrictions currently imposed on the over-the-counter emergency contraceptives:  Plan B One-Step and Next Choice. We encourage them to do so without delay.

Contraceptive use has been the driving force in reducing unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion. It also improves overall health by enabling women to plan and space their pregnancies, contributing to dramatic declines in maternal and infant mortality.  Bottom line: birth control is basic health care. The FDA’s approval of ella is a great step forward, but now we need to ensure that regardless of which contraceptive a woman needs, she can access it safely and quickly.

An Anniversary Worth Noting

Published on May 10, 2010 in Laura Hessburg and Reproductive Health. 1 Comment
Laura Hessburg

Laura Hessburg

The kudos about the 50th anniversary of the FDA’s approval of the birth control pill are well deserved. Timely access to contraceptive services has vastly improved maternal and child health, and has been the driving force in reducing rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion in this country. Women’s ability to control our fertility has helped us achieve personal, educational and professional goals and made us a critical component of the nation’s success.

Bottom line: For most women, whether they choose to be mothers or not, avoiding unintended pregnancy is possible only with consistent use of reliable, effective contraception. And we can credit the birth control pill with making that much easier for women.

But 50 years after the pill was approved, half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. You read that right: 50 percent.  So while we celebrate the ways that contraceptive use has liberated women, revolutionized American society and improved women’s health and well-being, let’s also recognize that this work is not nearly done.

It is hard to fathom how a nation as rich as ours can fail so utterly to address such a basic health care need, especially when there are tangible ways to reduce unintended pregnancy. We can promote the use of long acting contraceptives that are easy to use and highly effective. We can eliminate cost as a barrier to access to family planning services. We can recognize that, in a poor economy, the unmet need for subsidized reproductive health services goes up as fewer women can afford prescription contraception.  And we can and should take steps to make it available to all.

Enter health care reform – a double-edged sword.  Its enactment dealt a significant blow to abortion access, which some women facing unintended pregnancy will choose. But it also holds great promise to address the unmet need for contraceptive services.

How?  Here is one way.  By 2014, health reform will expand Medicaid eligibility to all Americans with a family income at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. This provision will vastly expand access to comprehensive health care, including no-cost family planning services, for millions of Americans.

Here is another.  For reproductive age women the news is even better – the law allows states to act quickly and more easily to expand access to family planning services for low-income women who would otherwise not be covered through Medicaid. Effective immediately, states have the option to expand Medicaid eligibility for family planning services up to the same eligibility they use for pregnant women without having to go through the cumbersome federal waiver process. Most states typically provide coverage to pregnant women at or near 200 percent of poverty – levels far above eligibility for all other populations.

And one more:  A provision requiring new health plans sold in and outside of the new exchanges to cover, with no cost-sharing, a broad range of preventive health services. The Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with translating this requirement into coverage specifications by September. For women this means coverage and no-cost sharing for a broad range of women’s preventive health services. Authored by Senator Barbara Mikulski, this provision will address women’s unique health care needs by improving access to affordable preventive services such as family planning services and counseling.

50 years after the pill was approved, the next great step in improving women’s health could be health care reform – but realizing its promise will require ensuring adequate funding for family planning health centers, creating a well-trained public health workforce, and reversing its anti-choice provisions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was right to recognize family planning as one of the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements in the 20th Century.” Now, as we celebrate the little pill that started it all, let’s finish the job by making all reproductive health services available to women and making unplanned pregnancies truly rare.