Reproductive Health Care Access in the United States: A Review of Literature

By Madison Dufek, Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, Minor in Communications, ’17

Author’s Note:

“Reproductive health care/family planning refers to services that provide birth control, prenatal care, and pregnancy termination procedures. This is a subset of health care that is in my opinion talked about too much but not enough – especially when it comes to abortion. I initially wrote this piece for an upper division writing class focusing on women’s health; but reproductive health care access soon transformed into a cause that is now a great passion of mine. The results from the literature had me fiercely enraged yet profoundly inspired. Women all over the world today are denied necessary health care because of skewed perceptions of family planning and women as a whole. Abortion services – be it via medication or surgical procedure – are vital to communities, not just women. What troubled me most was discovering that the women who are already struggling suffer the greatest from abortion restrictions – women who already have mouths to feed, who are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, who are uninsured, and often have no support system at all. It saddens me to know that the needs of these women are so often disregarded as communities make judgements, and as lawmakers work to regulate women’s reproductive rights. Deciding to have an abortion can take a huge psychological and physical toll on women and their families; and abortion restrictions only make this experience more trying for them. This, however will not prevent women from seeking abortions, it will only cause more of them to suffer major health complications or even die trying to obtain an abortion. This piece is for anyone out there like me: someone who wants to get educated, who wants to join the conversation, and who wants to become a stronger advocate for women’s reproductive rights!”

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