Legal Status: Health Impact for Lesbian Couples

Number 428

ABSTRACT: Women in same-sex relationships encounter barriers to health care that include concerns about confidentiality and disclosure, discriminatory attitudes and treatment, limited access to healt...

Health Disparities for Rural Women

Number 429

ABSTRACT: Significant health disparities exist for rural women in all categories of women's health, including obstetric and gynecologic outcomes and access to care. Minority women living in rural are...

Community Involvement and Volunteerism

Number 437

(Reaffirmed 2012)

ABSTRACT: As professional and community leaders, obstetrician–gynecologists have unlimited opportunities to become involved in and have a positive impact on local, national, and international communi...

Informed Consent

Number 439

(Reaffirmed 2012)

ABSTRACT: Obtaining informed consent for medical treatment, for participation in medical research, and for participation in teaching exercises involving students and residents is an ethical requireme...

Health Care for Homeless Women

Number 454

(Replaces No. 312, August 2005)

ABSTRACT: Homelessness continues to be a growing problem in the United States. With increasing unemployment and home foreclosures, the recent recession and current economic difficulties are estimated...

Forming a Just Health Care System

Number 456

ABSTRACT: In this Committee Opinion, the Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists endorses the College's ongoing efforts to promote a just health care system, ex...

Preparing for Disasters: Perspectives on Women

Number 457

(Reaffirmed 2012)

ABSTRACT: Emergency plans that specifically address the needs of women, infants, and children during disasters are currently underdeveloped in the United States. Pregnant women, infants, and children...

Ethical Considerations for Performing Gynecologic Surgery in Low-Resource Settings Abroad

Number 466

ABSTRACT: International humanitarian medical efforts provide essential services to patients who would not otherwise have access to specific health care services. The Committees on Ethics and Global W...

Challenges for Overweight and Obese Urban Women

Number 470

ABSTRACT: Overweight and obesity are epidemic in the United States. Obesity is a risk factor for numerous conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke, heart disease, certai...

Substance Abuse Reporting and Pregnancy The Role of the Obstetrician Gynecologist

Number 473

(Reaffirmed 2012)

ABSTRACT: Drug enforcement policies that deter women from seeking prenatal care are contrary to the welfare of the mother and fetus. Incarceration and the threat of incarceration have proved to be in...

Planned Home Birth

Number 476

(Reaffirmed 2013)

ABSTRACT: Although the Committee on Obstetric Practice believes that hospitals and birthing centers are the safest setting for birth, it respects the right of a woman to make a medically informed dec...

Methamphetamine Abuse in Women of Reproductive Age

Number 479

(Reaffirmed 2013)

ABSTRACT: Methamphetamine abuse has continued to increase in the United States since the late 1980s with its use spreading from the West Coast to areas across the country. Methamphetamine use in preg...

Empathy in Womens Health Care

Number 480

ABSTRACT: Empathy is the process through which one attempts to project oneself into another's life and imagine a situation from his or her point of view. Most individuals do have an innate capacity t...

Partnering With Patients to Improve Safety

Number 490

(Reaffirmed 2013, Replaces No. 320, November 2005)

ABSTRACT: Actively involving patients in the planning of health services is recommended as a means of improving the quality of care. This can increase patient engagement and reduce risk resulting in ...

Health Literacy

Number 491

Replaces No. 391, December 2007

ABSTRACT: According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic he...

Effective Patient - Physician Communication

Number 492

ABSTRACT: Perhaps the greatest contemporary challenge in implementing the principles of effective communication lies in our current health care environment that demands increasing physician productiv...

Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness in the Delivery of Health Care

Number 493

(Reaffirmed 2013)

ABSTRACT: Communication with patients can be improved and patient care enhanced if health care providers can bridge the divide between the culture of medicine and the beliefs and practices that make ...

At-Risk Drinking and Alcohol Dependence - Obstetric and Gynecologic Implications

Number 496

(Reaffirmed 2013)

ABSTRACT: Compared with men, at-risk alcohol use by women has a disproportionate effect on their health and lives, including reproductive function and pregnancy outcomes. Obstetrician–gynecologists h...

Adult Manifestations of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Number 498

(Reaffirmed 2013)

ABSTRACT: Long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse are varied, complex, and often devastating. Many obstetrician-gynecologists knowingly or unknowingly provide care to abuse survivors and should s...

Sexual Assault

Number 499

ABSTRACT: Victims of sexual assault who are of reproductive age are at risk of unintended pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, emergency contraception and prophylaxis for se...