Politicians’ Efforts to Undermine Providers Are Imperiling Women’s Health

Jeni R., at 21 weeks of pregnancy, visited her OB/GYN for a prenatal checkup and was devastated to learn that her pregnancy was not viable.¹ Her options were to either terminate the pregnancy or wait for the inevitable miscarriage. She and her partner chose the former. However, because Jeni lived in Texas—a state with some of the most restrictive and intrusive abortion bans in the country—she was forced to overcome a number of medically unnecessary and intentionally cruel hurdles to get the care she needed. This included being forced to listen to a provider recite a medically inaccurate script about the harms of abortion; waiting for two days after getting counseling before returning for the procedure; and receiving approval from two different doctors before getting the procedure.

Sadly, Jeni’s story is not unique: Women across the United States face increasingly difficult, even insurmountable, barriers to receiving comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion care.² In addition to erecting cost and other logistical barriers to accessing care, these restrictions purposefully interfere with the patient-provider relationship, dictating when, where, and how providers can interact with their patients.

The patient-provider relationship is a cornerstone of clinical care. In order for providers to administer personalized and quality care, they must establish effective communication with their patients, create an environment of trust, collaboratively engage their patients in decision-making, and safeguard their patients’ confidentiality and privacy.³In fact, when patients trust that providers are acting in their best interest, they are more likely to adhere to treatment recommendations and continue care with the same provider. Patients must also trust that providers are protecting their health information, as this allows them to more openly share sensitive information that providers can use to determine the best diagnosis and provide appropriate counseling.⁴ Any actions that undermine a provider’s ability to create a safe, private, and trusting environment will ultimately lead to poorer patient health outcomes.

View the complete July 17 article by Osub Ahmed on the Center for American Progress website here.