Bush Takes Another Step Backward For Women's Health Says ARHP; ARHP Backs Comprehensive Prenatal Care Coverage For All Women

2/4/2002

From: Sean C. Prichard of ARHP, 202-466-3825; E-mail: sprichard@arhp.org

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 -- The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP), an education association for physicians, nurse practitioners, and advance practice clinicians in the United States and abroad, is calling attention to the serious threat to women's health hidden in a new regulation within the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The new language in SCHIP redefines a human child to include "children from conception to age 19." The new regulation does not provide any new health coverage to pregnant women, and SCHIP and Medicaid already provide prenatal care to give children a healthy start in life.

"This is a transparent attempt by an anti-choice administration to convey personhood to fetuses, " says Dr. Felicia Stewart, ARHP board chair and director of the Center for Reproductive Health Policy and Research at the University of California San Francisco. "It doesn't make sense to create conflict where none needs to exist. No matter what the 'legal' status of a fetus is, insuring optimal health care for every pregnant woman is the only way to care for the pregnancy. It's dishonest and demeaning to pretend that the woman somehow can be omitted from the process."

SCHIP was enacted with bipartisan support in 1997 and is managed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ARHP encourages members of the public to voice opposition to this new anti-choice policy by calling HHS secretary Tommy Thompson at 877-696-6775 or e-mail HHS.Mail@hhs.gov.

ARHP is multidisciplinary association composed of professionals who provide reproductive health services or education, conduct reproductive health research, or influence reproductive health policy. ARHP, founded in 1963, has a mission to educate health care professionals, public policy makers, and the public. The organization fosters research and advocacy to promote reproductive health. Web site: http://www.arhp.org.