Health and Human Services secretary visits Denver to discuss reproductive health
DENVER (KDVR) — The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is touring six states, including Colorado, to talk about reproductive healthcare.
The term “reproductive healthcare” may bring to mind for many the topic of abortion. Advocates, leaders and doctors are urging folks to think beyond that.
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“We are on our reproductive health for all tour but I could simply have called this the ‘health for all tour’ because reproductive health is important to everyone,” said Secretary Xavier Becerra.
The Health and Human Services secretary stopped in Denver Friday to stress the importance of access to reproductive healthcare. The visit comes nearly two years after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe vs. Wade, removing the right to an abortion, and advocates say much more.
“We’ve seen women traveling from out of state to seek reproductive healthcare. Abortions, hysterectomies, contraception, and even delivering babies or to take care of their miscarriage management,” said Dr. Emily Schneider, an OBGYN in the Denver area.
Schneider says out-of-state abortions make up about 30% of abortions performed in Colorado in the past year, and the influx is making the demand for all services challenging for Colorado healthcare providers. She and other advocates on hand for the secretary’s stop in Denver want Coloradans to know that other aspects of reproductive health have been affected as a result of services being removed in other states.
“We still have to protect healthcare and the resources for women’s health in particular. We still need resources for std testing, syphilis is on the rise in America and here in Colorado. We need resources for routine mammography, for breast cancer screenings, for cervical cancer screenings, for making sure people have access to birth control,” Schneider said.
State Catholic conference criticizes secretary’s visit
The Colorado Catholic Conference criticized the visit in a statement.
“HHS Sec. Becerra’s Colorado meetings are touted as an effort to improve equitable access to abortion for disadvantaged communities, but it is actually an effort to promote the ‘Right to Abortion’ ballot proposition to become the fifth state to force taxpayers to pay for abortion. Colorado is already one of 17 states that allow for Medicare funds for abortion, which means the most disadvantaged communities in Colorado have access to abortion funded by insurance. This stop in the Biden administration’s so-called ‘Reproductive Healthcare Tour’ is an effort to promote the November ballot measure that will remove the 1984 constitutional amendment which prohibits taxpayer-subsidized abortion in order for the 2025 Colorado legislature to appropriate millions of Colorado taxpayer dollars for elective abortion for the full 40 weeks of pregnancy without any restrictions, for in-state and out-of-state women.”
Colorado Catholic Conference
While Congresswoman Diana DeGette and advocates did mention the measure that will be on this year’s ballot, DeGette, who is co-chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus in Congress, is concerned about what could happen outside of Colorado this November.
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“[Republicans] don’t want to talk about it so much right now because they can read a poll just like all the rest of us can read a poll, but they will work hard to enact a national abortion ban if Donald Trump is elected president and they keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives. So that’s what I am fighting against every single day,” DeGette said.
Advocates are also calling for more research on reproductive healthcare to boost funding for efforts designed to prevent negative health impacts.
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