ANA\C The Nursing Voice Spring 2019

anacalifornia.org  .  13 State & National Nurses Respond to Threats to Reproductive Health Access, Rights, & Justice Recent publications summarize the policies and actions taken by the American Academy of Nursing and the American Nurses Association in advocating to protect the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of all women and men regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, or social economic status in the face of political interference in the patient-provider relationship ii : Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Access & Justice: Where Nursing Stands (2018) by Ellen Olshansky, Diana Taylor, Versie Johnson-Mallard, Shannon Halloway, Liz Stokes in Nursing Outlook, 66 (4); 416–422. Reproductive health: Nursing’s “resist and respond” advocacy needed to protect women’s reproductive rights (2018) by Karen S. Cox in Nursing Outlook, 66(4); 347–349 Proposed Healthcare Policy Changes Threaten Women’s Health (2018) by Carol Roye, Versie Johnson-Mallard, Pamela Burke, Ivy Alexander, Diana Taylor, Cindy Greenberg, Kim Czubaruk in Nursing Outlook, 66(6), 586–589. Political Interference in sexual and reproductive health research and health professional education (2017) by Diana Taylor, Ellen Olshansky, Nancy Woods, Versie Johnson-Mallard, Barbara Safriet, Teresa Hagan in Nursing Outlook, 65(2): 242–245. The American public deserves excellent nursing care, which requires a policy environment that lets nurses do what they do best: empower, educate, support, uplift, and care for our patients. National nursing organizations firmly believe in universal access to comprehensive and affordable healthcare services for all Americans 1 and have called on the Administration and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to: Ensure that all policies, guidelines, and clinical practice protocols are evidence-based and not limited by religious, philosophical, or moral beliefs of an individual healthcare provider, institution, or employer. 2 Remain religiously and morally neutral in funding, policies, and activities to ensure individuals do not receive inappropriately limited services and health care providers’ ethical obligations are not compromised. Stop undermining the Title X program and any policy proposals that interfere with the patient—provider relationship, violate professional ethics, and limit access to high-quality, affordable family planning care. 3 As threats to individual’s sexual and reproductive rights accelerate in frequency and velocity, national and state i nursing organizations continue to take a leadership position to resist and rebut proposed limitations to reproductive freedoms. Diana Taylor PhD, RNP, FAAN The recent moves by the Trump administration fly directly in the face of these goals and represent major steps backward in the effort to ensure that all Americans—especially vulnerable populations such as low-income women and those with pre- existing conditions—have access to all necessary healthcare services. The administration, however, has not only taken aim at the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) healthcare coverage regulations. In late February 2019, the Trump administration posted its final rule imposing sweeping and destructive changes to the Title X national family planning program to the Federal Register in spite of the 500,000 statements opposing the rules (including ALL major health professional organizations). Often referred to as the Title X gag rule, the administration’s changes threaten the integrity of the program, the qualified providers it supports and the well-being of people who rely on Title X—supported care. Title X, the nation’s only program focused on providing birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, and other reproductive health care for those with low-incomes. Title X—supported providers deliver patient-centered, voluntary, confidential and affordable care to approximately four million people each year—most of whom have incomes at or below the federal poverty level, or face other systemic barriers to care. These new regulations not only undermine the successes of a decades-old family planning program, hailed as “one of the top 10 public health achievements;” they imperil patient-provider relationships by preventing nurses and other providers in Title X programs from giving patients complete information, including referrals for safe, legal abortion. They also specifically block access to care at Planned Parenthood clinics, which serve over 40% of all Title X patients. The Title X gag rule represents an all- out assault on these patients’ right to obtain the reproductive health care they want and need. These regulatory changes, which have no basis in scientific evidence, would compromise America’s 4 million nurses’ ability to do their jobs including delivering high-quality, safe and ethical care to patients. Nursing opposes these regulatory changes and any other policy proposals that interfere with the patient- provider relationship, violate professional standards or ethics, and limit access to high-quality, affordable family planning care under the Title X program. Social Justice Corner Continues on page 14 ❱