Kimmet, Haley2020-10-052020-10-052020-08-03https://hdl.handle.net/11299/216516Professional paper for the fulfillment of the Master of Public Affairs degree.With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed in 2010, U.S. women with disabilities stand to benefit from several key provisions intended to enhance access to a system that has historically struggled to meet their needs. However, recent quantitative and qualitative studies suggest that women with disabilities continue to experience gaps in accessing and utilizing sexual & reproductive health (SRH) care (Armour et al., 2009; Becker et al., 1997; Iezzoni et al., 2016; Mosher et al., 2017) despite advances in the health care coverage of this population (Gavin et al., 2006). Here in Minnesota, even less is known about SRH experiences and outcomes for women with disabilities because few large-scale studies gather detailed information about both disability status and access to/utilization of SRH. Even when data is collected, a full picture of women with disabilities’ experiences is obfuscated by discrepancies in disability definitions as well as data collection limitations. Without knowing the full picture of how Minnesota women with disabilities access SRH, inequities are likely to persist for this population across the state. This paper focuses on assembling a comprehensive picture of quantitative SRH data emerging from Minnesota and across the U.S., including a systematic literature review of SRH experiences of women with disabilities and a review of Minnesota health disparities reports released following passage of the ACA. This review was conducted with specific attention to the definitions and data collection methodologies that influence our understanding of SRH access for women with disabilities. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for data collection on the SRH needs of Minnesota women with disabilities with the hope of developing more effective policy recommendations in the future.enWith the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed in 2010, U.S. women with disabilities stand to benefit from several key provisions intended to enhance access to a system that has historically struggled to meet their needs. However, recent quantitative and qualitative studies suggest that women with disabilities continue to experience gaps in accessing and utilizing sexual & reproductive health (SRH) care (Armour et al., 2009; Becker et al., 1997; Iezzoni et al., 2016; Mosher et al., 2017) despite advances in the health care coverage of this population (Gavin et al., 2006).Thesis or Dissertation