protecting women's health

Women's health advocates support MICRA to maintain access to care and to keep healthcare providers practicing throughout California. Without MICRA, the decline in the number of obstetric providers in the state will only get worse, further threatening women's access to comprehensive, quality reproductive healthcare.

One in seven ob-gyns has stopped practicing obstetrics due to the high risk of liability claims, 25 percent have limited the amount of high-risk obstetric care they are willing to offer, 12 percent have reduced the number of babies they deliver, and 5 percent have stopped performing major gynecological surgery altogether.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2004 survey

Of particular concern is the potentially devastating effect reduced access to quality ob/gyn care, including prenatal care, will have on California's growing population of lower income women and their babies, as well as those who live in rural areas.

Attachments:

• California's women's health advocates speak out on MICRA (pdf)
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists releases a study on impact of medical liability crisis on women's healthcare (pdf)
• Health Coalition on Liability and Access fact sheet demonstrates how women pay the price for medical liability crisis (pdf)