Members of the Board of Health,

As an anti-violence advocate, it is my duty to inform you of the strong links between intimate partner violence and negative reproductive health outcomes. Please consider the following from The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' comittee opinion entiteled 'Reproductive and Sexual Coercion' available at http://www.acog.org/resources-and-publications/comittee-opinions/comittee-on-health-care-for-underserved-women/reproductive-and-sexual-coercion

"Many women who experience reproductive and sexual coercion also experience physical or sexual violence. Evidence demostrates that violence and poor reproductive health outcomes are strongly linked. Experiencing violence increases a woman's risk of unintended pregnancies. Women who have experienced IPV [intimate partner violence] are more likely to report a lack of birth control use because of a partner's unwillingness to use birth control or because the partner want a pregnancy (8). One study found that women with unintended pregnancies were four times more likely to experience IPV than women whose pregnancies were intended (9). In 2007, the prevalance of IPV was nearly three times greater for women seeking an abortion compared with women who were continuing their pregnancies (10). Males who perpetrated IPV in the past year were more likley to report inconsistent or no condom use during vaginal and anal intercourse as well as forced sexual intercourse without a condom, increasing the likelihood of unintended pregnancy (5, 11). A significant portion of women and adolescent girls seeking reproductive health care services have experienced some form of IPV, reproductive and sexual coercion, or both (5). Additional reproductive health issues with long-term implications for women who had experienced violence include earlier initiation of sexual intercouse, alcohol or drug abuse, STI's and HIV, miscarriages, and risky sexual health behavior, such as having unprotected sexual intervouse and having multiple sexual partners (12-14)." [Please refer to original text for citations]

This evidence supports the strong need for accessible reproductive health care (including abortions) for women and female-bodied people who experience violence in there intimate or sexual relationships. As a domestic violence advocate, I know that without reproductive health care and the freedom to make decisions about her own body, women and female-bodied people are at a devastating disadvantage as the seek to free themselves from abusive relationships.

Please do not play politics with women's lives. Grandfather in existing clinics so that we do not loose the precious few resources that my rural clients have.

Thank you