Protect our family planning services

Cuts to sexual health services could lead to a rise in abortions and STIs, charities claim.

A new report commissioned by two of the UK’s leading family planning charities claims cuts to contraception and sexual health services could lead to an increase in the number of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Increases which could saddle the UK with a £136.7 billion NHS and welfare burden by 2020.

Last year the Advisory Group on Contraception found that 3.2m women of child bearing age faced restrictions to accessing contraception.

And in the areas where restrictions were greatest, the abortion rate was 9.75 per cent higher than areas with no restrictions.

The Family Planning Association (FPA) and Brook commissioned Unprotected Nation to look at what might happen if access to sexual health services remained the same, got better or worsened between now and 2020.

If access remains the same, unintended pregnancy and STIs could cost the UK between £84.4 billion and £127 billion.

If cuts continue and there is worsened access – with more people being denied access to contraceptive methods and information – the additional cost to the NHS plus wider public sector costs could total between£8.3 billion and £10 billion, a tenth of the total NHS budget in 2012-13.

If there is improved access, the NHS and the public sector could save between £3.7 billion and £5.1 billion by 2020.

Simon Blake, Brook’s chief executive, said that the national sexual health and teenage pregnancy strategies had ended and the NHS was under intense pressure to make savings.

“This report makes very clear just how short-sighted restrictions to contraception services are – particularly for young people who have to navigate this void alongside a black hole in sex and relationships education programmes,” he said

“The wheels of this crisis are firmly in motion.

"Investment in sexual health saves money, but if national and local government ignore the warnings and continue stripping away services, advice and information, the bleak predictions in this report will come true,” added Dr Audrey Simpson, acting chief executive, FPA.

As a result, the charities have launched a campaign called XES - We Can't Go Backward to raise awareness about the consequences of cuts to sexual health services.

They are asking supporters to sign up to a Bill of Rights to guarantee women accessible, confidential and timely sexual health and contraception services across the UK, write to their MP asking them to support these aims and to rate their own experiences of contraception and sexual health services on an on-line map.

Anne Connolly, a GP in Bradford and chair of the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum, said: “Maintaining progress requires investment and if we are brave enough to invest money at a time when there is pressure to disinvest there are massive cost savings as well as quality of life savings to be made.”

Romney's clumsy attempts to woo women voters

Story published on Women's Views on News, Friday, April 13, 2012

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is desperate to win back female voters, after moves by Republicans to curb abortion rights in some states and limit insurance cover for contraception have led to a surge in support for Obama.

Romney is going on the offensive over jobs, claiming that 92 per cent of jobs lost over the past three years have been lost by women.

But a fact check by the Washington Post, reveals that more men than women lost their jobs in the early years of the recession, when George W Bush was in charge.

Jobs were lost in construction and finance, while female-heavy industries such as public services were hit later.

This pattern is normal in a recession.  The Washington Post quotes US government figures which suggest 3.4 million men have lost their jobs since the start of the recession, compared to 1.8 million women.

Romney’s new-found appetite for women’s rights are dubious. Lanhee Chen, his policy director, could not confirm that he would support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, legislation introduced by Obama, to make it easier for women to file lawsuits for equal pay.

He has also been accused of deferring to his wife, when faced with questions about women.

“My wife has the occasion, as you know, to campaign on her own and also with me,” Romney told newspaper editors, “and she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy,” he told reporters.

Republicans try to block extension of services for victims of domestic violence

Story published on Womens Views on News, March 15, 2012

A new row over women’s rights threatens to engulf the US legislature - this time it’s about domestic violence.

Democratic Senate members are pushing to extend the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, so that it extends funding to reach Indian tribes and rural areas.

It would increase the availability of free legal assistance, extend the definition of violence against women to include stalking, provide training for court staff to deal with families with a history of violence and extend programmes to cover those in same sex relationships.

It would also allow more illegal immigrantMurkowskis who are victims of domestic violence to claim temporary visas, and would include same-sex couples in programs for domestic violence.

Yet Republicans accuse the Democrats of using domestic violence to extend immigration rights and say there are not enough safeguards to ensure that funding is well spent.

They also claim that extending protection to groups like same sex couples dilutes the focus on domestic violence.

Some believe the Democrats are using the bill to score political points.

Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama told the New York Times: “I favour the Violence Against Women Act and have supported it at various points over the years, but there are matters put on that bill that almost seem to invite opposition.”

But at a private Senate Republican lunch on Tuesday, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska reportedly warned her colleagues that the party was at risk of being painted as anti woman — which could spell disaster for the elections this autumn.

The row follows recent moves by Republican-controlled states like Virginia and Ohio to force women seeking abortion to undergo an abdominal ultrasound and, in the case of Ohio, to deny the procedure when a heartbeat was detected. 

Republicans in the Senate also tried unsuccessfully to block a measure by the Obama administration, to stop employers and insurance companies refusing to cover contraceptives and other items they object to on religious or moral grounds.

Democratic members walk out of contraception hearing

Story published on the Women's Views on News website, Feburary 17, 2012

Two Democratic members of the US House of Representatives have walked out of a hearing about contraception in protest at the chairman’s refusal to allow a woman to testify
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Democratic Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Eleanor Holmes Norton left a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, after the chairman, Republican Darrell Issa, refused to allow a female college student to testify.

The hearing is looking into a regulation introduced by the Obama administration, compelling employers and health insurers to provide contraceptive coverage.

The first batch of witnesses were all male religious leaders opposed to the new rule.

Democratic Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings requested that college student Sandra Fluke be allowed to put the case for greater coverage.

Issa said that, as a college student, Ms Fluke did not have the ‘appropriate credentials’ to testify in front of his hearing.

He added the hearing ‘was not about reproductive rights and contraception but about the Administration’s actions as they related to freedom of religion and conscience’.

Holmes Norton said she would not return, calling Issa’s chairmanship an ‘autocratic regime’.