Women's Health
Nurses, as health care professionals dedicated to supporting the health and safety of their patients, recognize that legislation restricting patient access keeps us from providing the patient care we are trained and dedicated to provide. We support our patients and stand ready to serve them both in the hospital and policy arenas.
The Academy signed on to a letter organized by the National Partnership for Women & Families expressing concern for what Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court would mean for women and girls with pre-existing conditions. The letter, delivered to the US Senate on August 21, 2018 read in part: “Cases involving the ACA's prohibition on discrimination based on preexisting conditions are working their way through the court system and may, ultimately, end up at the Supreme Court. Judge Kavanaugh already expressed his opposition to the ACA…We urge the Senate to stand with the millions of women and girls who would be left without affordable, comprehensive, quality care and to reject Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.”
The American Academy of Nursing applauded the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Whole Women's Health v. Hellerstedt, the most significant abortion case in 20 years. This ruling, the Academy noted, is a strong affirmation of the critical need for all women to have unrestricted access to safe, legal heath care. The Academy supported Whole Woman's Health, the lead plaintiff in the case, and was a signatory on one of 45 amicus or "friend-of the-court" briefs filed in January 2016.
In addition, the Women's Health Expert Panel with the Bioethics Expert Panel drafted comments in response to the 2014 Supreme Court Decision related to Hobby Lobby concerned for the profound effect upon the ability of women to obtain contraceptive services paid for by their health insurance.
Working with the Emerging Infectious Diseases Expert Panel, Engaging the voice of women in HIV prevention, care, and treatment was published in the January 2016 issue of Nursing Outlook.
An editorial Breaking Down Silos: The Future of Sexual and Reproductive Health Care was published in the January 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
A Call to action: Expanded research agenda for women's health was published in the July 2013 issue of Nursing Outlook to highlight the critical research needed that was not included in the NIH, Office of Research on Women's Health and the Institute of Medicine reports on women's health research agendas. Earlier in the year, Where we are today: Prioritizing women's health services and health policy was published in the January 2013 issue of Nursing Outlook to identify broad recommendations for prevention and health promotion for women and specific recommendations for prevention and management of unintended pregnancy. Also written by the Women's Health Expert Panel and published in the same issue was Women's Health in Jeopardy: Failure to Curb Unintended Pregnancies, was published in Nursing Outlook; the panel urged support for policies to preserve and advance reproductive health for women.
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