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| | Issue #19.26 :: 01/23/2008 - 01/29/2008 | Is contraception next?
| BY SUBMITTED TO THE METRO SPIRIT
| To the editor:
AUGUSTA, GA - On the anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood of Georgia is celebrating 35 years of freedom for women and families and vows to continue the fight to protect women’s health, increase access to affordable health care and birth control, and expand access to comprehensive sex education.
Roe v. Wade is a powerful reminder that deciding whether and when to become a parent is one of the most personal and important choices we make. As the nation’s leading provider and advocate of reproductive health care, Planned Parenthood knows firsthand that when women and couples have access to high-quality, affordable health care, they are able to plan healthy families.
Every year, Planned Parenthood of Georgia provides over 25,000 women, men and teens with the information, education and services they need to protect their health, prevent unintended pregnancy, plan and space healthy, wanted pregnancies — and, ultimately, to fulfill their dreams and destinies.
Currently less than 50 percent of Georgia’s poorest women have access to subsidized family-planning services. The common-sense approach is to prevent unintended pregnancies as a sure way to reduce the number of abortions.
Now, though, the battle isn’t just being waged over abortion, but over access to contraception. There are efforts afoot to pass The Human Life Amendment (House Resolution 536) that seeks to create personhood in the state of Georgia from fertilization until natural death. HR 536 does nothing to prevent unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion.
More Georgians need to understand the broad legal and medical ramifications of HR 536. Its supporters blatantly state that their intention is to outlaw legal abortion in Georgia. This amendment is so extreme that it could potentially prohibit the use of hormonal birth-control options that doctors commonly prescribe like the birth control pill and IUDs. It could even stop women from accessing in-vitro fertilization.
This amendment puts women’s health in real jeopardy. Potentially, a pregnant woman experiencing complications that threaten her life or health would be unable to obtain an abortion or seek treatment for a disease or condition that might harm the fetus. Doctors could be medically liable for prescribing the care that would protect the health of the woman.
Also, the wording of the amendment is very unclear and open to interpretation. The danger is that this could lead to more government intrusion in our personal lives, such as getting into our medical records to investigate miscarriages, dictating what kinds of birth control we use and interfering with medical decisions in treating women for fertility problems.
It is time for the Georgia General Assembly to make women’s health issues a priority and stop playing politics with public health. Planned Parenthood is calling on elected officials to work with us on realistic policies and practices that will help our state improve the health status of women and children. Programs that promote prevention and wellness are priorities for most Georgians and are always the best medicine.
Mary Beth Pierucci, director of public policy
Planned Parenthood of Georgia
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