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local legislators can join the more than two dozen states and cities that have made local progress on paid sick days,51 and ensure paid family leave so workers can take paid leave to recover from serious illness or care for a sick or new family member . Fully-funding family planning programs and affirmatively addressing the underlying causes of maternal mortality are additional necessary steps governments should pursue to eliminate the shortfall that low-income women experience in reproductive health care . In Congress, that means advancing existing legislation like the 21st Century Women’s Health Act,52 the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act,53 and the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act .54
The abortion access crisis in the states can be reversed . From repealing existing restrictive policies that make life harder for women,55 to advancing proactive policies that actually seek to expand services and access,56 states can and should move in a new direction . And opportunities to do so aren’t limited to state governments . Local city and county officials can also take a stand to improve reproductive rights for low-income women and all people by enacting programs and policies that support their constituents, ranging from improving contraception access and screening for sexually-transmitted infections, to regulating the harmful practices of deceptive crisis pregnancy centers,57 to calling on Congress to take action .58
To counter state abortion restrictions that are closing clinics and making it harder for everyone— and for low-income women especially—to access needed abortion care, members of Congress can advance the Women’s Health Protection Act .59 This groundbreaking legislation recognizes that any single state abortion restriction can have a devastating impact on the women affected by it . But when all of these various roadblocks to abortion access work together, the effect can be catastrophic—making this essential reproductive health care virtually impossible to obtain for far too many women . The Women’s Health Protection Act creates federal protections against government restrictions that fail to protect women’s health and intrude upon personal decision- making . Under the Act, states would be prohibited from enacting abortion restrictions that single out abortion from other health care procedures and make it subject to additional unnecessary requirements, such as TRAP laws, requirements that patients must make one or more medically
51 naTional parTnership for women and families, sTaTe and local acTion on paid sick days (2014), http://www. nationalpartnership.org/research-library/campaigns/psd/state-and-local-action-paid-sick-days.pdf.
52 21st Century Women’s Health Act of 2015, S.674, 114th Cong. (2015), available at https://www.congress.gov/ bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/674/titles.
53 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, S.942, 113th Cong.(2013), available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th- congress/senate-bill/942.
54 Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act of 2013, H.R.3712, 113th Cong. (2013), available at https://www.congress. gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3712.
55 Tara Culp-Ressler, Virginia Governor Takes the First Step Toward Repealing ‘Extreme’ Abortion Clinic Restrictions, Thinkprogress (May 12, 2014), http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/05/12/3436860/virginia-governor-trap-review/.
56 Reid Wilson, California Expands Early Abortion Access, Defying National Trend, washingTon posT ( Oct. 10, 2013), http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/10/10/california-expands-early-abortion-access-defying- national-trend/.
57 Crisis Pregnancy Centers, urBan iniTiaTive for reproducTive healTh, NIRH, http://www.urbaninitiative.org/ BuildingAMovement/CrisisPregnancyCenters (last visited May 20, 2015).
58 #ActForWomen Municipal Resolutions: The Women’s Health Protection Act of 2015, draw The line, http://www. drawtheline.org/act-for-women/municipal-resolutions/ (last visited May 20, 2015).
59 H.R.488, Women’s Health Protection Act, 114th Congress (2015), available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th- congress/house-bill/448?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22women%27s+health+protection+act%22%5D% 7D.
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality