National Women's Health Week, 2016

Proclamation 9443 of May 6, 2016

National Women's Health Week, 2016

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Throughout our history, women have contributed to
shaping the course of our country--and with each
generation, they have helped affirm the timeless belief
that everyone deserves an equal shot at reaching for
our Nation's promise. We have achieved great progress
in tearing down barriers that deny women equal
opportunities, but we still have more to do to ensure
that health care is a right for every American,
regardless of sex or gender. This week, we recommit to
ensuring equal access to high-quality care for women
and to building a more prosperous, healthy future.

Ensuring women can live full and healthy lives is
vital, and central to that mission is improving the
quality, affordability, and accessibility of health
care for women. Because of the Affordable Care Act
(ACA), insurance companies can no longer charge women
more than men or use preexisting conditions--including
pregnancy--to deny them the care they need.

Twenty million Americans have gained health insurance
since the passage of the ACA, including roughly 9.5
million women since the first open enrollment period in
2013. Under the Act, annual limits on out-of-pocket
spending for essential health benefits have been
established, and lifetime and annual limits on
insurance coverage have been eliminated. For 55 million
women, critical preventive services, including well-
woman visits, certain cancer screenings, and domestic
violence screenings and counseling sessions, are now
guaranteed with no out-of-pocket costs. Access to
preventive care can help identify and diagnose
conditions early, benefiting countless women across our
Nation.

The important decisions that affect a woman's health
should be left to her alone. Today, efforts around our
country to weaken access to contraception and to limit
a woman's right to choose threaten to reverse decades
of hard-won progress. It is crucial we reject actions
that obstruct women's access to sexual and reproductive
health services and stand firm in protecting their
access to safe, affordable health care and the
constitutional right to privacy, including the right to
reproductive freedom.

National Women's Health Week is an opportunity to
refocus our commitment to advancing women's health and
ensuring a healthy future for all our Nation's women
and girls. To learn more about women's health, and for
health care options available for women and girls,
visit www.WomensHealth.gov or www.GirlsHealth.gov.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim May 8 through May 14,
2016, as National Women's Health Week. I encourage all
Americans to celebrate the progress we have made in
protecting women's health and to promote awareness,
preventive care, and educational activities that
improve the health of all women.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand
sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and fortieth.