VAWA: Standing up for all women

Prior to adjourning in April, the Senate reauthorized the pivotal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which for many of us who work in women’s health should have been a no-brainer. We urge the House to swiftly pass this version of the reauthorization as well.  Let’s face it: few congressional bills have delivered so greatly on their promises. Since its passage in the mid-1990s, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), incidences of domestic violence are down by more than 50 percent.

But VAWA, once a bill with bipartisan support, was threatened this year by political agendas and stigmatizing politicking. Opponents sought to arbitrarily limit the number of immigrant women who can seek relief from violence, impose substantial barriers when the victim is Native American but her abuser is not, and ignore violence against gay, lesbian, and transgender victims. These approaches further stigmatize campaigns aimed at particular populations, and they do nothing to help women get the counseling and shelter they need to escape abusive relationships.

Keep in mind that VAWA has been reauthorized twice without major objection, and each time victims have enjoyed an expansion of protections. Those expansions have included provisions for cyberstalking and dating violence, and a greater emphasis on protection for immigrants. The latest version, passed in 2005 and signed by President Bush, also added cultural and linguistic specific services that were later expanded to same-sex partnerships by the DOJ.

The truth is that women in the U.S. continue to face gender discrimination in our daily lives, and studies show that gender stereotypes and other social stigmas can lead to unhealthy and, in some cases, violent intimate relationships. American women suffer nearly five million partner-related physical assaults and rapes every year, women still make only 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, and, until the passage of health care reform, women were viewed as having a preexisting condition, simply by virtue of their gender. Additionally, a recent national survey found that law enforcement agencies are seeing an increase in domestic conflict as a result of the sluggish economy.

In recent years, lawmakers nationally and in the states have used every opportunity to strip away women’s basic rights to reproductive health care, sometimes under the false guise of ending gender discrimination. These efforts, such as PRENDA, the so called Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, respond to gender bias by imposing more barriers for women seeking reproductive health care, further isolating women rather than addressing the underlying factors that lead to sex selection. In state after state, lawmakers are focused on imposing barriers to women’s reproductive health care and enacting stigmatizing legislation that further isolates women from the support they are seeking.

When a woman is in an abusive relationship, the effect is much broader than just the physical and emotional damage inflicted on her and her family. It creates real public health challenges.

Recent studies have confirmed an association between intimate partner violence and coercion related to reproductive health. Planned Parenthood health centers proactively screen and refer for intimate partner violence in a clinical setting, and we work in the community on sex education that includes important conversations about healthy relationships. If women have experienced both reproductive coercion and partner violence, their likelihood of experiencing an unintended pregnancy is doubled.

Access to high quality, confidential reproductive health care is essential for women struggling to stay safe. Last year, a young woman in Texas wrote us about how she had been trapped in an abusive relationship, beaten down and depressed. It was only when she experienced the fear of a possible unintended pregnancy that could tie her to her abuser forever that she sought help, at first simply by obtaining emergency contraception from a Planned Parenthood health center. It was in that health visit appointment that she began her first steps towards opening up about the abusive relationship and rebuilding her life.

Planned Parenthood health center staff are committed to their roles as confidential and trusted health services providers. Planned Parenthood will continue to be there for women whenever they need us. But all of us need to actively challenge the root causes of gender bias and make sure women have the ability to make healthy decisions in all facets of their lives. We urge the House to pass the Senate’s version of VAWA swiftly, and for both chambers to appropriate the funding required to help millions of women live a life free from violence and coercion.

Cooney is director for global advocacy, Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

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