Resolution Adopted by the
CCAR
Womens’ Health Care
Issues
Adpoted by the 103rd Annual
Convention of
the Central Conference of American Rabbis
San Antonio, Texas, April, 1992
WHEREAS, the Central Conference of American Rabbis has
consistently and frequently
committed itself to full and equal rights for women in all
aspects of our society,
and
WHEREAS, it has become increasingly
clear that women too frequently have been denied
adequate and equal health care and medical
attention, as illustrated by the following
examples:
1). the
overwhelming predominance of medical research focuses on male
subjects, even
in such critical
areas such as cardiac, cardiovascular and oncologic disease;
2. the recent significant concerns
exemplified by disputes as to the safety of silicon
breast implants and facial silicone injections
further imply that adverse medical
reactions affecting women do not receive proper serious
attention,
3. and that, in the
case of HIV infection, the Centers for Disease Control of the
United States Department of Health
and Human Services have not included several prominent
gynecological manifestations of HIV in the
official definition of AIDS, thereby disenfranchising a
disproportionately large number of women from AIDS resources and
treatment
options.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Central
Conference of American Rabbis strongly urges
that health care and medical institutions and
policy-making bodies of the United
States turn their immediate attention to equal concern for the
health of women.
In particular, the Conference
points to the need to broaden and increase medical research
projects and protocols to include women
equally and the need to focus on diseases
and health issues of particular import to
women.
Furthermore, the Conference strongly
encourages the Food and Drug Administration and
other appropriate regulatory agencies to take a more
serious approach when reviewing
products, procedures and treatment, that specifically affect
women.
In addition, the Conference implores the
Centers for Disease Control to expand its
definition of AIDS to include all those clinical manifestations
of HIV disease which
are uniquely
gynecological in
nature.
Finally, we urge swift creation of universal
health care for all people which will
also provide the following essential health rights for
women:
1. provision of good pre-
natal care for the disenfranchised ( poor, undocumented women),
2. insistence that all insurance
companies acknowledge the need for preventive health
care such as pap smears and mammograms and give
coverage,
3. provision and
funding of more research on methods of birth control,
4. protection of women’s reproductive
rights so that sterilization for any length
of time must be the decision of the woman alone, and
allowing no person or agency
to
abuse that right,
5. educating
women about their own bodies thus enabling them to take control and
make
intelligent decisions,
6. educating the health care system
about the real problems women face and firmly
discouraging condescending and patronizing responses
which, in too many instances,
discount the very real complaints of women.