Providers, educators, and advocates will ask lawmakers to protect and expand access to sexual health care.
BOSTON— On January 31st, more than 400 advocates for sexual and reproductive health care will gather at the Massachusetts State House to encourage lawmakers to support a proactive legislative agenda designed to safeguard and expand access to sexual health care and education. The Sexual Health Lobby Day will be hosted by a coalition of more than 40 health care providers, educators, and advocacy groups.
Attorney General Maura Healey, Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia A. Haddad, and State Representative Juana Matias will offer remarks to kick off the event. High school peer educators, activists, and family planning patients from across the state will also offer remarks.
Advocates will meet with their state representatives and senators and ask them to co-sponsor legislation that will protect and expand access to no-copay contraception, increase access to comprehensive sex education, and strengthen patient confidentiality. Advocates will also seek adequate state funding for family planning services, HIV/AIDS programs, and teen pregnancy prevention programs.
WHAT: 2017 Sexual Health Lobby Day. The speaking program will include:
Attorney General Maura Healey
Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia A. Haddad
State Representative Juana Matias
Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of MA president Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak
NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts executive director Rebecca Hart Holder
Activist and member of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts
Members of the Get Real Teen Council from Worcester and Brookline
Peer leaders from the Massachusetts Family Planning Association’s Fall River Program
WHERE: Great Hall, State House, Boston, MA
WHEN: Tuesday, January 31, health fair begins at 9:30 a.m., speaking program begins at 10:30 a.m.
WHO: Co-sponsored by AAUW-Massachusetts; AIDS Action Committee; American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts; Asian-American Women’s Political Initiative; BAGLY Inc.; Boston Area Rape Crisis Center; Catholics for Choice; Cambridge Health Alliance – Sexual and Reproductive Health Program;
Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund; Fenway Health; GLAD: GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders; Greater Boston PFLAG; Health Care For All; Health Imperatives; Health Quarters; Ibis Reproductive Health; Jane Doe Inc.; Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action; League of Women Voters; Mass NOW; Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy; Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth; Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women; Massachusetts Family Planning Association; Massachusetts Public Health Association;
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition; MassEquality; Moishe Kavod House; NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts; National Association of Social Workers – MA; National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF); Our Bodies, Ourselves; Partners in Sex Education; Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts; Pleasure Pie; Sidney Borum Jr. Health Center; Tapestry; Tufts Medical Students for Choice; Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts; Women’s Health Physical Therapy; YWCA Central Massachusetts.
[From a News Release]
