The Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (NPWH) said it is “appalled” by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“As an organization representing clinicians who focus solely on delivering women’s and gender-related healthcare, NPWH is appalled by this decision which takes away our patients’ rights, threatens clinicians who serve them and violates our patient/clinician relationship,” NPWH said in a statement issued Friday following the court’s ruling.
The full statement is below:
Statement on US Supreme Court Ruling
on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
As an organization representing clinicians who focus solely on delivering women’s and gender-related healthcare, NPWH is appalled by this decision which takes away our patients’ rights, threatens clinicians who serve them and violates our patient/clinician relationship.
Overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey will directly harm millions of patients and their providers. In the coming weeks, 28 states are expected to allow extreme and harmful laws to resurface, or take action to enact laws that will restrict or ban abortion and threaten healthcare providers.
Abortion is healthcare. It improves the lives, health, and well-being of those who need it. Decisions about healthcare are best made by a patient and their clinicians. Laws that criminalize a clinician’s duty of care will only harm patients and destroy the patient/clinician confidentiality that is critical to providing care.
The NPWH mission is founded on the principle of “protecting and promoting a woman’s right to make her own choices regarding her health and well-being within the context of her lived experience and her personal, religious, cultural, and family beliefs.” We respect the right of individuals to make reproductive health decisions free from coercion within the healthcare setting, their home, or their community, and support policies that preserve the individual’s right to autonomy and self-determination. Today’s ruling is a direct threat to that right.
Barriers to healthcare never impact people equally. The patients who will be most harmed by this ruling are those already suffering from the social and systemic impacts of marginalization – Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; those with low incomes, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. NPWH is concerned that this ruling will worsen our country’s maternal health crisis and disparities in health outcomes, especially for those who are already suffering from health and social inequities.
NPWH is committed to advocating for access to the full spectrum of reproductive health services. We will continue providing high-quality continuing education to providers of women’s and gender-related healthcare, sharing clinical guidance, and supporting policies that promote health and wellness. We will continue collaborating with our partners in women’s, maternal, and gender-related health. And we will continue the advancement of healthcare towards a more just, healthy, and equitable world.