In response to the recent attacks from the Trump administration on the health care that women and families need and deserve, Dr. Willie Parker, board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, issued the following statement:
Doctors have seen what care was like before the ACA, and we do not want to go back.
“The Trump administration made it clear that they want to destroy the health care of millions of people in this country, especially their access to reproductive health care. On the heels of an executive order to roll back the contraceptive coverage benefit in the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a strategic plan that put ideology before medicine by trying to define life as beginning at conception, which could impact women’s access to birth control and abortion care. Trump also issued an executive order that allow companies to sell junk insurance without maternity and newborn care, birth control, or coverage for pre-existing conditions. The administration also abruptly announced that they would end cost sharing reductions that help millions of patients access quality health care without out-of-pocket costs.
These decisions directly attack the health and economic security of women and families, and they certainly have nothing to do with evidence-based medicine. The patients I serve in the South and patients across this country need more access to quality, affordable health care services. They need the Affordable Care Act, they need compassionate abortion care, and they need access to contraception without co-pays.
Doctors have seen what care was like before the ACA, and we do not want to go back. We want to be able to treat all of our patients in the way that is best for them—we don’t want their care to be limited because they cannot afford it. My colleagues and I implore policymakers to stop these attacks on the health and freedom of women and families and treat health care as a human right.”