Call for policies that would protect patient access to reproductive health care services

Patients need to be able to access comprehensive reproductive health services without undue government interference, including abortion, says the American College of Physicians (ACP) in a new policy paper published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Reproductive Health Policy in the United States: An ACP Policy Brief," details new recommendations to protect patient access to care through the freedom to travel to seek medical care and ability to receive prescription medication in the mail or via other shipping and delivery services and opposes efforts to criminalize the practice of medicine and restrict access to care.

ACP's recommendations oppose government restrictions that would erode equitable access to reproductive health care services, including family planning, sexual health information, the full range of medically accepted forms of contraception, and abortion. ACP also opposes criminal or civil penalties for providing or otherwise facilitating clinically appropriate health care services that meet the standard of care.

The recommendations specifically denounce regulations that allow private citizens to have the ability to enforce state laws and the use of personal health information to prosecute or penalize individuals. Finally, ACP affirms that individuals should have access to high-quality health care regardless of where they live; including the ability to have legally prescribed drugs shipped and delivered, and the freedom to travel across state or U.S. borders to access health care services.

The authors from ACP say they are particularly alarmed by restrictions on reproductive services that would subject physicians to stiff criminal penalties for providing, or even simply making a referral for abortion care. ACP stresses that patients need to know that their physicians can provide them with the medical care and advice that they need, while physicians need to be free to care for our patients in accordance with their own clinical judgment and based on clinical evidence and the standard of care, without being threatened with punitive laws

The recommendations are an update and expansion of ACP's paper, "Women's Health Policy in the United States," that was published in Annals in 2018.

More information:
Josh Serchen et al, Reproductive Health Policy in the United States: An American College of Physicians Policy Brief, Annals of Internal Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.7326/M22-3316

Provided by American College of Physicians