U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand led a letter alongside U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) urging the Biden administration to establish an Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing (OSRHW) within the Domestic Policy Council. Following years of Republican-led policies on the federal level and in states across the country that have weakened reproductive rights and health care, Gillibrand and her colleagues are pushing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to develop, establish, and coordinate a federal government effort to secure reproductive justice for all.
“After years of attacks on women’s ability to make their own health care decisions, we must renew our nation’s commitment to reproductive rights,” said Senator Gillibrand. “The Biden administration has already taken steps to advance and secure reproductive health care and establishing a new Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing will be critical to a comprehensive, whole-government approach that prioritizes reproductive justice for minority women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and individuals with disabilities.”
An OSRHW would elevate issues of reproductive justice, addressing issues related to health care access; economic inequality; discrimination based on race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; food security; housing stability; environmental justice; immigrant’s rights; disability rights; and more. The office would provide America’s first ever centralized White House policy office solely dedicated to empowering all people to have not only health care access, but also the information and resources necessary to make reproductive and child-rearing decisions possible.
Full text of the letter can be found here and below.
Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris:
As Senators who share your commitment to advancing the health and wellbeing of people across the country, we write to urge you to establish an Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing (OSRHW) within the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.
We are deeply appreciative of and encouraged by your administration’s commitment to advancing and securing reproductive rights—including the right to access contraception and abortion—as evidenced by your early executive actions. We ask now that you build upon these efforts and institutionalize a reproductive justice policy framework, which aims to go beyond securing reproductive rights to more holistically address “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities,” in the White House. Reproductive justice for all means addressing issues of health care access; economic inequality; discrimination based on race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; food security; housing stability; environmental justice; immigrant’s rights; disability rights; and so much more.
Securing true reproductive justice is beyond the scope of any one existing executive department. An OSRHW would elevate issues of reproductive justice and ensure a permanent infrastructure to (1) develop a federal strategy for promoting equitable sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing through a human rights, gender and racial equity lens, and (2) better coordinate the actions of the many departments and agencies whose actions in both domestic and foreign policy contexts impact sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing, and the financial and economic welfare, of people in America and around the world. OSRHW would provide America’s first ever centralized White House policy office solely dedicated to empowering all people to have not only health care access and the information and resources necessary to make reproductive and child-rearing decisions possible.
In the midst of a pandemic that has disproportionately affected women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people of color, and people with disabilities, and in the wake of an administration that has implemented public policies that harm these communities at every turn, the comprehensive scope of reproductive health care must be an early priority for the Biden administration. Thank you for your attention to this request. We look forward to working with you to secure reproductive justice for all.
Sincerely,