Moving Forward on Reproductive Health

Abstract

Reproductive health policy has been mired in debates over abortion and sexuality, leaving unresolved a cluster of reproductive health problems. The litany of grave public health problems is as familiar as it is long: elevated rates of pregnancy-associated deaths, infant deaths, low-birth-weight newborns and preterm births, adolescent pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancies. Providing accurate information also requires comprehensive education, covering ail means of avoiding sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy as well as ways of ensuring that desired pregnancies are as healthy as possible. Such education must include accurate information not only about the efficacy of abstinence but also about the efficacy and safety of condoms, birth-control pills, emergency contraception, and sterilization. We know how to improve the reproductive health of Americans: base policies on evidence, not ideology; improve clinical research and postmarketing drug-safety studies; make accurate, comprehensive information about sexual health and family planning available to everyone, regardless of age; protect the privacy of patients; ensure access to reproductive health products and services; and adopt social policies that promote good health and facilitate individual choice about when to have children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)