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City council hearing spotlights gaps in Philadelphia's reproductive health safety net
Summary
City council's public hearing brought clinicians, researchers and community groups to outline shortfalls across abortion, prenatal, postpartum and survivor services, warning of clinic closures, staffing shortages and immediate funding needs for the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center and other providers.
Philadelphia City Council's Committee on Public Health and Human Services held a public hearing to review the state of the city's reproductive health care system and to identify local steps to protect access amid federal and state policy changes.
Chair Ahmad opened the session by asking witnesses to identify barriers, who is most at risk and what the city can do within its jurisdiction. "When I say reproductive health care, I mean the whole shebang," she said, listing services from contraception and STI care to prenatal, labor and delivery and abortion services.
Dr. Astha Mehta, director of the Division of Reproductive, Adolescent, and Child Health (REACH) at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, told the committee that reproductive freedom "is not a single service. It is infrastructure." She outlined ongoing city programs including prenatal access at city health centers, a planned early-pregnancy public-health campaign, maternal mortality…
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