Gillibrand Affirms on Senate floor: 'Women's Health Matters!'

ALBANY, NY (10/08/2009)(readMedia)-- This morning, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand joined other Democratic women members of the Senate on the floor to highlight the importance of women's health in health care reform. The Senator focused specifically on women's health centers and the work they do to reduce unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

Family Planning Advocates of New York State celebrates the Senator's ringing endorsement of prioritizing women's health care and health care centers in national health care reform. "In her address to fellow Representatives, Senator Gillibrand lamented that the critical services women's health centers provide is being politicized as a part of the health care reform debate," said FPA President and CEO M. Tracey Brooks. "Senator Gillibrand stressed the urgency of safeguarding access to women's health clinics and cited that 400,000 people in New York State receive health care from Planned Parenthood."

"Politicizing women's health care delivery endangers young women, putting them at risk for teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and cervical and breast cancers," Gillibrand told the Senate. "Our strategy for reform must protect these critical services and expand upon their success."

"Once again, Senator Gillibrand has demonstrated that she is a true champion for women and families," said Brooks. "As the mother of two young children, the Senator has continuously made health care a focus of her work. She believes in and advocates for a woman's right to access quality health care and to make her own health care decisions," said Brooks.

View the Senator's compelling speech at http://www.youtube.com/user/KirstenEGillibrand

For more information on women's health care, go to www.womenshealthmattersny.org.

Family Planning Advocates of New York State is a non-profit, statewide organization dedicated to protecting and expanding access to a full range of reproductive health care services. It represents New York's Planned Parenthood affiliates and other family planning centers, as well as hundreds of organizations and thousands of individual members.