• Learn more about the Responsible Choices Action Agenda
• Join the Responsible Choices Action Network
• Contribute to the Responsible Choices Action Agenda

The freedom to make choices about reproductive health, sexuality, and parenthood has taken a quantum leap in the 20th Century. Planned Parenthood is proud of the enormous progress we have made. As we approach the new millennium, we are more conscious than ever before that this freedom implies the ability to make responsible choices—choices that promote the health and well-being of an individual, a family, a community, and our society.

A solid majority of Americans support the ideal of ensuring that every child is a wanted child. Unfortunately, many women and men still lack the information and health services to achieve this ideal. As a result, almost half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are still unintended. The personal price of this nation's political failure to support responsible choices is incalculable.

That's why Planned Parenthood has launched the Responsible Choices Action Agenda.

We're advocating for new policies at the federal and state levels that will advance reproductive health and decision-making. And we, too, are committing ourselves to better meet the health care needs of women and their families.

As the 20th Century comes to a close, we believe it is long past time that everyone had equal and open access to the information and services they need to make conscientious, safe, and responsible decisions about sex and reproduction. The means already exist. Now we must translate the social consensus into a political consensus to make responsible choices a reality.

Expand domestic
family planning programs
Millions of women in the U.S. remain at risk for unintended pregnancy simply because they don't have access to the vital reproductive health services that could help them plan whether and when to have children. Without existing family planning programs, the unintended pregnancy rate would be even higher. Yet funding for these services is under attack even though most Americans support increasing it.

Strengthen international
family planning programs
For three decades, the U.S. government has been a world leader in the effort to improve the quality of life through family planning. That effort is now being challenged despite the fact that millions of couples in developing nations still need better access to contraception and reproductive health services.

Guarantee equity in
insurance coverage for family planning
From health plan to health plan, there is a great disparity in insurance coverage for contraception. The vast majority of plans include a broad range of prescription drugs, but far too few of them cover prescription contraceptives.

Make improved contraceptive
methods more widely available
Many people are not satisfied with the methods of contraception now available. Private and public research into better contraceptive technology is long overdue. While emergency contraception, such as the so-called "morning after pill," does exist, health care providers need information and training so that they can discuss it with their patients, and women must be educated to ask for it. If widely available, emergency contraception could decrease the rate of unintended pregnancy and lessen the need for abortion.

Offer every teenager honest,
responsible sexuality education
and pregnancy prevention programs
While adults debate whether to talk to teens about how to avoid pregnancy, teens continue to get pregnant. It is essential that we teach teens how to abstain from sex—along with facts about contraception, reproductive health, and decision-making. In the U.S., millions of tax dollars are spent each year to teach abstinence alone, and there is no federal program promoting responsible sexuality education.

Make sure there are trained
providers of reproductive health care
While Planned Parenthood cares for more than 3.4 million women and men each year, we have no illusions about being able to serve all of America. The U.S. needs comprehensive training programs that teach health care providers about the full range of reproductive health services. Without adequate training about contraceptive methods, for example, providers cannot advise their patients about what will work best for them.

Expand access to obstetric
and gynecological care
Gynecological care is primary care for many women of reproductive age. Yet many face barriers that prevent them from taking advantage of this critical preventive care. Too many insurers do not recognize OB/GYN providers as primary care providers and require a woman to obtain permission before she can visit her OB/GYN.

Guarantee a
patient's right to know
Patients should be able to rely on their health care providers for complete and accurate answers about their medical options and treatments, especially in the area of reproductive health care. All too often, however, patients are denied the information they need to make good medical decisions due to the religious views or financial motivations of a provider or health plan.

Ensure confidentiality
of medical records
As health care delivery systems and insurance coverage become more complicated—and as medical records are computerized—confidentiality is jeopardized. Confidentiality is also compromised by insurance industry procedures that allow policyholders to view sensitive information about any person covered by their policy. Patients will be more likely to seek sensitive services if they know their medical information will be kept private.

Improve access to early
medical and early surgical abortion
There is not a single abortion provider in 84% of U.S. counties. As a result, many women may be forced to delay and have procedures later in pregnancy and further from home. New abortion procedures proven to be safe and effective early in pregnancy could improve access to abortion by increasing women's options and the number of providers of these services. Using ultrasound and manual vacuum aspiration techniques, physicians can perform surgical abortions soon after the earliest point that pregnancy can be confirmed, but few have been trained to do so. At the same time, anti-choice intimidation has kept early medical abortion from American women. Pressure must be brought to bear to make mifepristone (known in Europe as RU-486) and methotrexate available to women who want them. Training of physicians and research on additional medical abortion methods are also needed.

Guarantee the ability to
exercise the right to choose for everyone
The vast majority of states severely restrict access to abortion for some of the most vulnerable women among us—teenagers and the poor. At the same time, the dwindling number of abortion providers takes a great toll on women living in rural communities. Abortion training in medical schools, certification and training of advanced practice nurses and physician assistants, a rollback of restrictive laws, and a renewed commitment to providing care to low-income women— all are needed to restore lost access to abortion.

Prevent violence at
reproductive health care facilities
The federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, signed into law in 1994, has decreased incidents of violence and harassment at reproductive health care facilities. Sadly, though, violence remains a fact of life for providers and patients across the country. Threatening or violent behavior by protesters continues to deny patients access to clinics providing family planning and abortion services — and to discourage health care providers from offering this care.

Take Action Now!
Ensure Responsible Choices
To make the ideal of Responsible Choices a reality, our elected officials must hear from you. Planned Parenthood is using new technology and networks to make the voices of America's pro-choice, pro-family planning majority heard.

• Responsible Choices Action Network
  We're energizing thousands of advocates through phone, fax, and e-mail alerts.
   
• Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood
  We're challenging a new generation of women and men, ages 18 to 30, to protect family planning, sexuality education, and the right to choose.
   
• Republicans for Choice, Clergy Advisory Board, Pro-Choice Religious Network, and other constituencies
  We're building networks demonstrating the broad, diverse base of support for pro-choice, pro-family planning policies.
   
• Planned Parenthood ^® Global Partners
  We're forging a strong national constituency that advocates for international family planning, reproductive health, and sustainable development.

A Chance to Vote for Responsible Choices
Through our Action Fund and PAC, Planned Parenthood is stepping up efforts to elect more pro-choice, pro-family planning members of Congress. We are working to ensure that our representatives support policies that help people make responsible choices—and will themselves make responsible choices on behalf of their constituents. Our initiatives will:

• Identify Pro-Choice Voters Nationwide
   
• Educate Voters about Candidate Positions
   
• Get Out the Pro-choice, Pro-family Planning Vote!

Join us.
Click for the Responsible Choices Action Network registration form.
Contribute to the Responsible Choices Action Agenda.

The Responsible Choices Action Agenda
is a project of Planned Parenthood Federation of America
and The Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

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