Health Care & Reproductive Rights

A woman's health impacts her personally and touches the lives of all who depend on her. Her health affects her ability to keep a decent job and to take care of herself and her family. Health care expenses often push vulnerable women and their families to the breaking point.

It's an unfortunate fact that quality health care is still not guaranteed in our nation. And women's health outcomes suffer. Despite spending more than any other country on health care, the United States has a shockingly high maternal mortality rate which nearly doubled between 1990 and 2008. Forty-nine countries around the world do a better job of preventing women from dying from pregnancy-related complications than the U. S.

Did you know:

• Nearly one in three working-age women (an estimated 27 million women) were uninsured during 2010?
• Approximately 45 million women delayed or avoided health care because of cost in 2010?

Women's reproductive rights continue to be used as a wedge issue - coming under the worst attacks in decades. In Pennsylvania in particular, the struggle to maintain reproductive freedom remains an uphill battle. 

Did you know:

• The family planning clinics in the Philadelphia region meet less than half the need for health services among women?
• 78% of Pennsylvania counties have no abortion provider?