No Easy Answer

October 18, 2009, The Miami Herald

Caring for women

Local health centers are where many people turn for trusted healthcare. Community health centers, like Planned Parenthood, often serve as an entry point for essential healthcare needs. Locally, Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast provide for women's health and medical needs through their various health centers.

Today, one in four women who receives contraceptive care does so at a women's health center. One in six who obtains a Pap test or a pelvic exam does so at a women's health center. One-third of all women who receive counseling, testing or treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, do so at a women's health center. Such basic healthcare is essential, particularly during difficult economic times, to give women the tools they need to protect and support their families.

This is particularly true when you consider that women of childbearing age spend a remarkable 68 percent more in out-of-pocket healthcare costs than men, in part because of reproductive-health needs.

Protecting community healthcare providers in national reform is fundamental to a just and equitable healthcare system. We need to ensure that women have access to reproductive healthcare and to trusted healthcare providers wherever they live. Women must not be worse off after healthcare reform than they are today.

REV. DR. LAURINDA HAFNER, senior pastor, Coral Gables Congregational Church, Coral Gables