The health policy I selected for this weeks discussion is H.R.2975 – Womens Health Protection Act of 2019. In short, this policy was introduced in house in May of 2019 with the goal to allow women to have the right to choose to bear children or end an unwanted pregnancy and to protect the health care providers involvement in providing abortion services (Congress.gov, n.d.). The conversation of abortion, like many health topics, can be a sensitive subject and due to the controversial nature of this medical intervention there is poor data to look at actual rates of abortion in the United States (Ahrens & Hutcheon, 2020). Along with occurrence rates and trends it is also important that research is looking at safety and accessibility related to abortion (Ahrens & Hutcheon, 2020). One piece that really stands out for me is the importance of safety for medical providers to feel comfortable providing this medical procedure. Violent threats and harassment can be very stressful and create a dramatic decrease in accessibility of care for patients and providers do not feel safe practicing abortion (Hall, 2020). I believe the Womens Health Protection Act of 2019 plays an important role in creating better data, safety and accessibility for women of our country in need of medical assistance for unwanted births.
