Focus on Women’s Health

Focus on Women’s Health By Lisa Howard

With the Dobbs decision from the Supreme Court in May 2022, access to women’s health care was put at risk across the country.  Many of us have granddaughters, daughters and friends of child-bearing age that live in states where pregnancy now holds greater risk than it has for previous generations. The choice of pushing the decision back to the states has left many women who live in jurisdictions with government leadership supportive of women’s health wringing our hands about how to help as the horror unfolds in other states.  For the Sacramento AAUW women that gathered to discuss the threat to women’s health (the Reproductive Choice Committee), our first task was to gather resources.

While we haven’t yet figured out how to take action on this knowledge, we recognize that a first step we can each take is to share information with others so that more people understand what and where restrictions are being built into the law. Perhaps a small step each of us can take is to share the legal actions being taken and the resulting stories of impact on women’s individual lives with friends and families who are constituents of the leaders seeking to remove their rights.

Resources for you:

AAUW National Position on Women’s Health Protection
The Rally for Abortion Justice — and Beyond

Pass the Women’s Health Protection Act!

  • Contact your elected officials.
  • Write a Letter to your Editor
  • Build Community

AAUW members have been participating in Planned Parenthood events – https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/rightfully-ours/bans-off-our-bodies#events

Kaiser Family Foundation maintains a dashboard of state actions against women’s health – https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/dashboard/abortion-in-the-u-s-dashboard/

There are at least two women who have dedicated themselves to investigating and surfacing human stories that really provide personal context to the issues – https://substack.com/profile/535611-jessica-valenti
https://andreagrimes.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email