tive function enhanced their ability to manage their work schedule and career choices. Women began to successfully challenge restrictive and discriminating laws under the 14th Amendment that effected their status." (Jarvis 161)There was an opportunity that motherhood would not equate to life sentence of poverty, or poverty would not lead to motherhood. Reform after reform, this opportunity has been diminished.For feminist organizations and for most feminist, access to abortion is one component of full reproductive health care that would include sex education, safe contraception, prenatal care, maternal, infant and child health services, and universal available health insurance (Carver, Nelson 751). For any sort of access to the "given" reproductive rights one has to have health insurance and money. Birth control, abortions, prenatal, and infant care are all very expensive, especially for poor and minority women. According to the Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics, in 1995 Blacks had a fertility rate of 71.8% percent, and Hispanics had a fertility rate of 103.7%, much higher than the White average of 64.5% (Costello, Miles, Stone 214). There is an inversely proportional relationship between minority fertility rates and the likelihood of these same minority groups receiving prenatal care. The National Center for Health Statistics reported in 1995 and 1996 that 9% of Black mothers receive late or no prenatal care, and 8.8% of Hispanic mothers receive late or no prenatal care. Again White mothers are better off, with only 3.9% receiving late or no prenatal care (Costello, Miles, Stone). Without a support system, such as health insurance (non-federally funded) or welfare assistance, many woman cannot afford these components. Women are more vulnerable than men in each sector of the health care financing system. Two thirds of Medicaid recipients are women, mostly poor mothers who get Medicaid and small public we...
