REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE: ESSENTIAL TO A FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY
The lives of American women have undergone a dramatic transformation between 1920 and 2025. Since the passage of the 19th Amendment giving them the right to vote, women have made significant advancements in rights, opportunities, and societal expectations. They have made enormous progress in education, employment, and representation in all sectors of American society.
Despite these advances, full equality and economic opportunity for women will only come when voters demand that policies keep pace with women’s roles in society and ensure their freedom to make their own personal reproductive healthcare decisions, free of government intrusion.
Today, women are increasingly the chief breadwinners for their families. Multiple factors have contributed women’s advances but one stands out among the rest – access to reproductive healthcare. According to the National Women’s Law Center, there is a demonstrated link between increased lifetime earnings and the ability of women to plan and space their pregnancies.
Reproductive healthcare encompasses the full spectrum of care – from contraception, to fertility treatment, to maternity care and, when needed, access to appropriate medical services when a decision is made to terminate a pregnancy.
As we celebrate Women’s Equality Day on August 26 and the passage of the 19th Amendment, Conservative Women for Freedom, the League of Women Voters, and the Women’s Resource Center reaffirm that a women’s right to self-determination and access to reproductive healthcare is essential for a functioning democracy.
Unfortunately, these fundamental rights are disregarded by Florida legislators, despite the impact on the capacity of women to make their own informed decisions and choices, free from external constraints or coercion, particularly concerning their bodies, health, and life circumstances.
As of 2024, abortions in Florida are banned at six weeks, when most women do not even know they are pregnant. The new law leads to delays and denials of care for women needing miscarriage management or the termination of a pregnancy due to a non-viable fetus. Florida law forces physicians to second guess their education, training, and experience to avoid possible criminal prosecution for treating their patients.
The state's abortion ban also has implications for Florida's labor market and economic growth. A nationwide survey conducted by Morning Consult reports that more than one-third of adults say that abortion bans, a lack of OB/GYN care, and low access to prenatal care and contraception would make them less likely to accept a job that required relocating to a new state.
In 2024, more than 57% of Floridians voted for a constitutional amendment to guarantee access to abortion care. Though approved by a clear majority, the amendment did not pass because the state requires a 60% threshold to amend the state's constitution.
We the people must hold our state legislators accountable and take action. We must overturn the six-week abortion ban, while in the short term, demand greater clarity in the law to help physicians provide the best quality medical care. We must insist on age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education in schools so young people have the knowledge to prevent pregnancies. We need to block any bills granting a fetus “personhood” status, which will threaten IVF and fertility treatment. We need the state to enhance access to healthcare in rural and under-served communities, including helping qualified patients enroll in Medicaid to help them pay for contraception and maternity care.
In the words of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, "The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman's life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When Government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices."
The freedom to make personal reproductive healthcare decisions, along with education and civic participation, is what we must continue to strive for on Women's Equality Day and the other 364 days of each year.
Vilia Johnson and Rhonda Peters, Co-Presidents
League of Women Voters-Sarasota County
Jaymie Carter, Co-Founder
Carol Whitmore, Co-Founder and Holmes Beach Commissioner
Conservative Women for Freedom
Terri Kondos, Vice President
League of Women Voters-Manatee County
Ashley Brown, President & CEO
Women's Resource Center