Oral

In recent years, new public policies toward reproductive health have been based more on faith and ideology than upon scientific evidence. Select American public policies toward both domestic and international sexuality education, contraception and abortion and the implications of both politics and science for future reproductive health policy development are discussed. From here, latest data on national family planning effort, including number of clients served and the impact of the services provided are reviewed. Together, the nationwide network of family planning centers and the private physicians who serve Medicaid enrollees provide contraceptive services to millions of American women. A new framework that would rationalize the emerging relationship between the Title X program and the Medicaid in a way that leverages the unique strengths of these two fundamentally different programs is need to enable the effort to confront looming challenges. Throughout the last several Republican administrations, US foreign policies affecting the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the world’s most vulnerable women were driven not by science but by ideology, with devastating impact. The panel will discuss how funding from the United States and other donors for international family planning assistance has waned significantly and its impact.

Session Objectives: • Describe the principles for evidence-based reproductive health policies • Discuss the policy changes needed to leverage the unique strengths of Title X and Medicaid • Understand the need for evidence-based US foreign assistance in reproductive health, particularly as relates to family planning, emergency contraception and abortion