By Cindy Pearson, co-founder of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need
For the 13th #HERvotes blog carnival, we’re celebrating National Women’s Health Week. The federal government launched National Women’s Health Week ten years ago in an effort to improve women’s health by building awareness about things like exercise, healthy eating and the importance of regular check-ups.
It’s nice to have our government speaking out about the importance of our health, but we know that it takes more than just awareness to insure that all women are healthy. It takes access to high quality affordable health care services. For too many women, health care hasn’t been affordable, especially reproductive health services. That’s starting to change, thanks to the new health law. This week’s #HERvotes blog carnival will focus on the importance of the preventive well-woman services of the Affordable Care Act.
You may already know that the Affordable Care Act requires new health plans to cover contraceptive counseling and methods without any co-payments. But did you know that plans will also be required to cover breast feeding supplies? And screening for domestic violence? These are just a few of the new preventive services that will be covered for women starting later this year.
The #HERvotes blog carnival will feature stories about how real women and their families are already benefiting from the new women’s health services and information on new parts of the Affordable Care Act that will be implemented in August 2012.
You can participate by telling your own story and by sharing the posts below on Facebook, Twitter (using the hashtag #HERvotes) and other social media.
Part of the #HERvotes blog carnival.
Read More:
Diseases/Conditions that Blame the Victim: How the ACA Will Make a Difference for Women- Carolyn J. Jacobson, founding member, Coalition of Labor Union Women
New Reasons to Celebrate Women’s Health Week- Beth Scott, American Association of University Women
Who’s Afraid of the Ob/Gyn? Lack of Communication Between Women and their Doctors- Dani Nispel, Program and Policy Intern, National Council of Women’s Organizations
National Women’s Health Week: Pledging to Take Care of Ourselves- Ann Rose Greenberg, Marketing Coordinator, Jewish Women International
Celebrating Women’s Health Week as a Grandmother- Nancy K. Kaufman, CEO, National Council of Jewish Women
Get your women’s health checkup today. It’s covered!- Lois Uttley, Co-Founder, Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need
League Recognizes National Women’s Health Week- Stephanie, League of Women Voters
#HERvotes, a multi-organization campaign launched in August 2011, advocates women using our voices and votes to stop the attacks on the major advances of the women’s movement, many of which are at risk in the next election.
2 comments
Nora W. Coffey says:
May 18, 2012
On the surface National Women’s Health Week, sponsored by the Dept. of HHS, Office on Women’s Health, appears to be an effort to raise awareness of women’s health issues, and to provide free screening.
Just below the surface, it is shocking to discover that the government’s Office on Women’s Health is partnering with Intuitive Surgical, a device manufacturer that makes the da Vinci robot, and pharmaceutical companies. The robot is being aggressively marketed to doctors, hospitals and directly to women primarily for hysterectomy, with the theme, “It’s not your mother’s hysterectomy”.
Here’s some of the important information Intuitive Surgical, doctors and hospitals are not telling women:
In the last three years, there were ten deaths that occurred in the US alone as a result of da Vinci robotic hysterectomy. Another, not yet in these statistics, was the recent death of a 24 year old woman who was burned to death during robotic hysterectomy. The lawsuit alleges that Intuitive Surgical failed to insulate the robots “arms”. There are also >500 reports of Adverse Events during robotic hysterectomy reported by FDA in their MAUDE database, which is available online to the public. Google “Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience Database”.
Of greatest importance, all of this aggressive promotion fails to mention the adverse effects of hysterectomy. To understand the many effects of hysterectomy it is essential to understand the functions of the female organs. The uterus is a hormone responsive reproductive sex organ that supports the bladder and the bowel. Women who experience uterine orgasm will not experience it after the uterus is removed.
The uterus gives women cardiovascular protection. Women who undergo hysterectomy have 3X more heart disease than women with an intact uterus, and 7X more when the ovaries are removed.
The female gonads are the ovaries, and the male gonads are the testes. Removal of the ovaries is castration. The many different hormones produced by the ovaries cannot be replaced by a pill, patch or implant.
The uterus and ovaries function a woman’s entire lifetime, there is no age or time in a woman’s life that she doesn’t need these critically important organs. To learn more about female anatomy, the functions of the female organs, and what happens to women’s bodies when the organs are removed, watch the short video “Female Anatomy: the lifelong Functions of the Female Organs” at HERS Foundation’s website http://www.hersfoundation.org/anatomy.
The government should not be partnering with device manufacturer’s in any circumstance, and it is particularly heinous that it is promoting hysterectomy, which is widely acknowledged to be largely unnecessary. Congressional Hearings on Unnecessary Hysterectomy in 19993 found that hysterectomy is performed more out of folklore than medical necessity.
Benton Burfield says:
Jul 7, 2012
Regards for helping out, good info. “In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you’ve heard the other side.” by Euripides.