December 17, 2013


Dear Neighbor,

 

During the current legislative session, you contacted me regarding important issues related to women's health. I would like to provide you with an update on the current status of women's health care in Wisconsin. As you likely know, ensuring access to affordable, quality health care is a priority of mine. Thus, I support health care coverage for all aspects of women's health. That is why I firmly support a woman's right to choose as well as access to contraception and will continue to fight against any legislation that seeks to take away or otherwise limit these rights.

You may remember a very controversial attack on women's health earlier this session. In June, Republicans introduced and quickly passed legislation mandating that women seeking abortions undergo an invasive and medically unnecessary ultrasound procedure. This legislation also requires all-option family planning doctors to have admitting privileges to a hospital located within 30 miles of their clinic. By passing this bill, Republican legislators confirmed their belief that women are incapable of making personal decisions about their own body.

In response to this damaging legislation, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and Affiliated Medical Services immediately filed a lawsuit contending the law is unconstitutional. On July 8, 2013, the day the law was to take effect, U.S. District Judge William Conley issued a temporary restraining order blocking the portion of the law related to admitting privileges. Since then, he has extended the restraining order twice. Most recently, on August 2, 2013, Conley put in place an injunction blocking the law until a trial is held in the Court of Appeals. This trial began on December 3, 2013, and is ongoing.

Should this law stand, Planned Parenthood would be forced to close two of four clinics offering all methods of family planning in Wisconsin. As the legal debate over this legislation moves forward, I will be sure to keep you updated on the status of this bill and its implications on the health of Wisconsin's women and families.

More recently, I heard from many neighbors regarding legislation that further attempts to roll back the rights of Wisconsin women. On November 7, 2013, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services passed two anti-women's health bills along party lines. As a result these bills – Senate Bill (SB) 201/Assembly Bill (AB) 217 and Senate Bill 202/Assembly Bill 216 – which have already passed the Assembly, can now be scheduled for a vote before the full Senate. A vote in the full Senate is the last step these bills need to take before being signed into law by the governor.

Further, as you may know, there was discussion that the bills were going to land on the Senate schedule when they met on November 12, 2013. However, thanks to the outrage from some of my Democratic colleagues as well as the pushback from women’s health advocates, like you, the bills were not taken up for a vote by the full Senate. While delaying these attacks on reproductive rights is a small victory, I encourage you to continue your momentum and advocacy because we will likely see these bills again when session resumes in 2014. More information on these bills is provided below.


SB 202/AB 216 – Restricting Birth Control Coverage
 

Women have long faced discrimination when it comes to health insurance coverage. Over the years, insurance companies in Wisconsin have been required to cover basic women's health care like mammograms, maternity care and, in 2009, birth control. In addition, the Affordable Care Act put in place federal protections to ensure that all women had access to preventative services under their health plan--including birth control. Organizations from the National Institute of Medicine to the World Health Organization to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists tell us that access to birth control is the single greatest investment in women's health that a community can make.

Despite the clear evidence of positive effects birth control has on our community, SB 202/AB 216 would allow religious employers to discriminate against women by denying them affordable access to birth control, unless the employer deems that the birth control method is for medical reasons rather than contraceptive reasons. The proposal is illogical given that a fall 2012 study released by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) demonstrated that access to no co-pay birth control coverage leads to significantly lower unintended pregnancy and abortion rates. Furthermore, birth control is not only a valuable family planning tool, but it also has many other medical benefits. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 58% of women use birth control for noncontraceptive health care reasons, which include:

 

 

SB 201/SB 217 – Additional Intrusion into Doctor-Patient Relationship


This proposal, SB 201/AB217, could put our medical professionals at legal risk by allowing the mother, father, or grandparents of an aborted fetus to sue the physician if the abortion they provided was "sex-selective." This proposal also has the potential to put undue strain and suspicion on a woman after she receives an abortion, even if it was not sex-selective.

Response to an unplanned pregnancy is a personal medical decision that is not taken lightly. While there are many legal options available to a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, including becoming a parent, adoption, or abortion, it is up to each woman to choose her path based on her personal circumstances and beliefs. The idea that Wisconsin women would choose an abortion because they are displeased by the sex of the fetus is outrageous. According to WebMD, the sex of a fetus can sometimes be determined by about the 18th week of pregnancy and Planned Parenthood states that in-clinic abortion is only offered up to 19 weeks after the start of a woman's last menstrual period. This leaves a small to non-existent window for a woman who opts to have an abortion the potential option to determine the gender of the fetus beforehand. Therefore, this scenario is likely not one that is occurring in Wisconsin, and thus is a nonexistent problem that does not require legislation.

Government interference in matters of family planning, which are intrinsically private and personal, is unacceptable. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, women have a constitutional right to privacy, as well as the authority to make decisions related to their own body. To wage a legislative war on women by attacking and chipping away at this fundamental freedom is an insult to women across Wisconsin.


For your consideration, the Legislature offers a free email notification system that alerts subscribers of legislative activities relating to issues that they have identified as important. This is an excellent way to keep informed about the issues that are important to you. Visit http://Notify.legis.state.wi.us for more information.

To keep you up to date on important issues, I have made sure you are added to receive my free electronic newsletter, the Larson Report. If you do not wish to receive this more in-depth look at the challenges facing our communities, please feel free to respond to your first report or this email with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. For quicker updates you may also want to find me on Twitter by following @SenChrisLarson or via Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SenatorChrisLarson.

Once again, thank you for your advocacy. I look forward to continuing to work with you on these important issues affecting our state.
 

Sincerely,

Chris Larson
Wisconsin State Senator