Reproductive Health

As the 2008 Presidential election campaign enters its final month, the women’s vote is emerging as the bloc that will determine who will be the next President of the United States. Yet there are big differences between the two tickets on an issue central to women’s lives: reproductive health. Yet, little is being discussed on these issues beyond abortion and Governor Sarah Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter. The majority of likely voters (81%) want a broader discussion on the full range of reproductive health issues that have implications for important life decisions, including affordable birth control, access to emergency contraception, and comprehensive sex education for teenagers.

What should voters be asking of the next President of the United States?

What can be done to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in the United States?

Half of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended. Voters agree that people should have the ability to plan when they want to start a family. It has also been shown that planned pregnancies are the healthiest pregnancies. In addition, 91% of voters believe that couples should have access to birth control.

There also is widespread public support for expanded access to birth control: 89% of voters favor public funding of family planning services. Yet a small vocal minority (9%) is pushing an anti-birth control agenda: extremist pharmacists are refusing to dispense birth control and emergency contraception – even to rape victims; the Bush Administration is working to expand a conscience clause on abortion services that would require clinics to certify that they will not discriminate against those refusing to offer or provide referrals to birth control.

What can be done to prevent our teens from becoming pregnant and contracting STIs?

This year alone, roughly 750,000 teens in the U.S. will become pregnant. A recent study showed that 95% of teens will have sex before marriage and more than half before graduating high school. The U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy for all industrialized nations. 86% of voters believe schools are best suited to provide the biological and scientific aspects of sex education and that parents should provide the moral and ethical guidance.

Yet for the past eight years, the Bush Administration’s policy has been to provide financial support solely to abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that do not address birth control or protection from STI’s. Studies have shown that female students who receive abstinence-only education are more likely to get pregnant than those taught comprehensive sex education.