Texas lawmakers hold the key to solving the problem of women's health care, said Katie Mahoney, project coordinator of Healthy Women, Healthy Families.
Healthy Women, Healthy Families is a coalition of more than 15 Texas organizations that banded together to launch a statewide survey about women's health services for the next nine months. The women surveyed will be asked to identify their health care needs and priorities in addition to sharing a personal story of a health care problem their family has faced.
"We wanted to get a picture of the state of women's health and reproductive health care and give women a way to share their stories," Mahoney said.
Mahoney said she plans on analyzing the survey's results to provide better information to Texans about women's health care. When the new legislative session begins in January, she also plans to present to legislators some of the testimonies from women. The project's leaders hope to collect a minimum of 2,000 stories.
"You need to advocate for breast-feeding support at state agencies," said one anonymous respondent in her account. "For instance, I am a UT graduate student and had nowhere to pump breast milk after I went back
to school. I had to stop breast-feeding my daughter before I was ready. There needs to be a law that requires all state agencies to have lactation rooms for breast-feeding mothers."
Mahoney said about 500 surveys have been returned, but the biggest pattern she's seen is that people have a variety of issues.
"I have severe endometriosis, have had surgery and recently discovered another ovarian cyst," said another unnamed participant in her account. "The only treatment for me is continual-use birth control pills - it's the only way to preserve any slight possibility of fertility. The movement afoot from the radical right to take away birth control will take away my health care options, will basically take away any hope I have of getting pregnant - as well as any hope I have of avoiding a hysterectomy."
Cynthia Brum, spokeswoman for the nonprofit organization Mothers for Clean Air, said environmental issues affect women's reproductive health in ways many women do not
realize. Mothers for Clean Air, which focuses on alleviating air pollution in the Houston-Galveston area, is partnering with Healthy Women, Healthy Families.
"This is a great opportunity to educate people about how these issues, like low ozone, can cause low birth-weight babies," Brum said. "Ultimately, we hope we can take these stories to the Legislature. With environmental issues, you have to put a human face to it."
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