Advocates and providers rally around introduction of Women’s Health Protection Act

For Immediate Release                                                                                                Media Contact: Sara Finger

January 21, 2015                                                                                                               (608) 251-0139 x1

Advocates & providers rally around introduction of Women’s Health Protection Act

Wisconsin Fortunate to Have Senator Baldwin Leading the Effort to Protect Women’s Health

Madison

– The Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health (WAWH) is grateful to US Senator Tammy Baldwin for once again helping to introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act today which creates federal protections against state restrictions that fail to protect women’s health and intrude upon personal decision-making. It promotes and protects a woman’s individual constitutional rights, no matter where she lives.

In recent years, politicians have increasingly sought new ways to interfere with personal decision-making and undermine women’s access to abortion care. State legislatures like Wisconsin have been more active than ever in passing burdensome requirements that single out abortion providers and services and do nothing to advance women’s health or safety – and, in fact, ultimately jeopardize women’s health. States enacted over 230 pieces of anti-choice legislation between 2010 and 2014 and Wisconsin saw its own share of damaging bills introduced and passed in the last few years.

“We need a federal law that would make these restrictions unlawful, thus allowing medical providers to do the important work of providing safe, legal, high-quality health care to all women across the country,” say Sara Finger, Executive Director and Founder of WAWH.

Despite the clear constitutional rights established more than four decades ago in the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade

, harmful restrictions are being fast tracked through state legislatures in an effort to roll back a woman’s right to make the best health care decisions for herself and her family.

Any one of these restrictions imposed on health care providers and abortion services can have a devastating impact on the women affected by it. But when all these various attempts to choke off access to abortion work together, the effect is often catastrophic—making a range of essential reproductive health care virtually impossible to obtain for far too many women.

In Wisconsin, restrictions requiring abortion providers to have medically unnecessary admitting privileges and forcing women to undergo medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds prior to an abortion would be among those that would be unlawful under the Women’s Health Protection Act once enacted.

“Every pregnant woman faces her own unique circumstances and potential challenges, and she must be able to make her own decisions based on her personal values, the advice of the medical professionals she trusts, and what’s right for her family,” added Finger.

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The vision of the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health (WAWH) is an environment in which every Wisconsin woman – at every age and every stage of life – is able to reach her optimal health, safety and economic security.

To learn more about WAWH, visit: www.supportwomenshealth.org