Inequalities in reproductive health: The disparate impact of restrictive state polices

A woman's state of residence can dramatically affect her access to reproductive health care services and information. Some states are committed to providing comprehensive and medically accurate sexuality education, but others provide no information or only ineffective abstinence instruction. While a number of states have significantly expanded eligibility for family planning services under Medicaid, many provide only the minimum mandated by federal law. Abortion is affirmatively protected and public funding guaranteed in a handful of states, but regulated nearly out of existence in others. In states such as Mississippi, lack of comprehensive sex education and harsh abortion restrictions are coupled with high maternal mortality rates among African-American women. The impact of restrictive state policies, and especially their cumulative effect, falls most heavily on young women, low-income women, and women of color. As a result, women in some states do not receive even the most basic reproductive health care. This presentation will look at four key areas of reproductive health policy – sex education, family planning, abortion, and pregnancy-related services – and demonstrate the importance that state policies play in ensuring overall reproductive health. The disparate impact that restrictive state policies have on low-income women and women of color will also be considered. The presentation will provide advocacy strategies at the state and federal level, and also within the broader health care reform debate, for ensuring that all women can obtain essential reproductive health care services.