Expert hearing on women’s health report confirms the importance of women’s health and gender medicine
Vienna (OTS) – “Today’s expert hearing on the current women’s health report once again confirms the importance of our focus on women’s health and gender medicine,” says Meri Disoski, deputy club chairwoman and women’s spokesperson for the Green Party, about the expert hearing in today’s Health Committee. “As in many areas of our lives, men and their bodies are still considered the norm in medicine and research. The structural neglect of women in medicine can, in extreme cases, be fatal for women, as we see with the example of cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death for women. “It is now all the more important that after ten years the focus is finally on women’s health again,” emphasizes Disoski.
The Green women’s spokesperson sees her central demands confirmed by the experts’ statements: “Unfortunately, our targeted focus on the sexual and reproductive self-determination of women is still necessary in 2024. Across Europe and around the world, we see right-wingers attacking our hard-won women’s rights, such as the right to abortion. We Greens, on the other hand, are committed to Austria-wide access to safe and legal abortions in public hospitals. Abortions are simply part of basic medical care for women and should finally be recognized as such without reservation,” says Disoski.
She also sees a need for action in Austria’s contraception policy, “which is one of the most backward in all of Europe”. While other countries have been offering contraceptives free of charge for years, “for too many people in this country, safe contraception is still a question of money. Free contraceptives help self-determined family planning, reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and protect against transmissible sexually transmitted diseases. As a significant step towards equality, I therefore support the current referendum for free contraceptives and will continue to advocate for a gender-equitable contraception policy,” says Disoski.
The Green women’s spokesperson Meri Disoski and the Green health spokesperson Ralph Schallmeiner are jointly relying on the study on free contraception commissioned by Health Minister Johannes Rauch, the results of which are expected soon: “Today’s hearing has shown the need for action. Not only in the central issue of contraception and legal access to abortion – the urgently needed focus on the problem of gender bias in research and diagnostics must also be actively addressed. The latter is certainly an international problem, but Austria and its doctors and researchers should take courageous steps here.”
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