Medically accurate information and access to reproductive healthcare promotes good family planning and prevents disease. We fund community programs to increase prevention education and access to clinical services.
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When young people know all the facts, they make better decisions. When you give them access, you empower then to act responsibly. These programs demonstrate how South Carolina can chart a better course for everyone, in just one generation.
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Advocacy
New Morning Foundation lobbies at the state level, and occasionally at the federal level, in support of medically accurate reproductive health education, increased access to reproductive healthcare and contraception, and HIV/AIDS prevention funding.
New Morning supports:
- Policies and programs that incorporate research-proven prevention strategies and that have undergone an objective, peer-reviewed evaluation. These include instruction in safer sexual behaviors, including the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and accidental pregnancies. We join major medical organizations (link to list in About Us section) in support of age-appropriate, medically accurate sexual health education in public schools.
- Legislation and state appropriations that advance family planning, contraception and reproductive health education in schools and communities, as well as those that increase health consumers’ access to clinical services. We oppose public funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs because objective evaluations have failed to prove that these programs work.
- A physician’s ability to treat patients with compassion and without restrictions in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment.” We oppose legislative efforts to interfere with the relationships between physicians, nurses and clinicians and their patients.
- A woman’s right to use birth control pills and other forms of hormonal contraception. For 40 years, science has documented these forms of birth control as safe and effective, and as the chief means to prevent over-population globally. We oppose legislative efforts that could potentially limit access to hormonal contraceptives. Such efforts may include personhood bills, which seek to redefine pregnancy in opposition to science-based definitions accepted by the major medical organizations.
- Access to emergency birth control, which is a mega-dose of the same hormonal compounds found in ordinary birth control pills. When used within 72 hours, emergency birth control can be up to 80% effective in preventing pregnancy. Timely access to emergency birth control is important to all women; it is particularly critical to victims of sexual assault. We join with domestic violence and sexual assault victims’ advocates to make sure emergency birth control1 remains accessible.
- The American Pharmacists Association’s response to pharmacists who object to filling prescriptions for contraceptives on personal, moral grounds: AphA supports a pharmacist ‘stepping away’ but not ‘stepping in the way’ of the patient accessing the therapy, a distinction which is critical. We oppose legislation that does not balance the pharmacist’s needs with patient needs, in keeping with the AphA’s public positions.
1It is important to distinguish “emergency contraceptives” or “emergency birth control”, which are hormonal, non-abortive products, from mifepristone, an FDA-approved medication that causes “chemical abortion”. Mifepristone and emergency birth control are unrelated products. Because the Foundation’s mission concerns prevention of pregnancy and is not concerned with pregnancy termination, the Foundation does not take a stand for or against mifepristone or any other form of abortion; however, the Foundation will help the public distinguish between these two medications, which have significantly different purposes, as part of public education.