Sixty organisations including pharmacy bodies have signed a letter from the president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare to the health secretary Wes Streeting urging him to tackle widespread inequalities that are preventing women from receiving the care they need.

In her letter this week, FSRH president Janet Barter told Streeting (pictured) “to make reproductive health a priority” as she described situations where women across the UK have been unable to access services. Maternal mortality for black women, she said, was nearly four times higher compared with white women while “significant disparities exist for women of Asian and mixed ethnicity.”

Barter also said girls born in the most deprived parts of England have almost 20 fewer years of good health compared with those in the least deprived areas while cervical screening uptake had fallen below the 80 per cent target, with 65.8 per cent of eligible women aged 25 to 49 adequately screened last year.

Barter said 45 per cent of pregnancies were “unplanned or ambivalent” and women from the most deprived backgrounds were nearly three times more likely to have abortions than women from “the wealthiest backgrounds.”

She went on to highlight that teenage conception rates in England and Wales have been increasing since 2021, “reversing the previous 14 years of improvement,” while the number of abortions was at “a record high.”

Barter also laid out five points the FSRH wants Labour to fulfil as set out in the Faculty’s Hatfield Vision Manifesto. These include the introduction of a sexual and reproductive health strategy and commitment to continuing the last government's Women’s Health Strategy; giving people better access to contraceptives; ensuring education and information about sexual and reproductive health is easily accessible; tackling sexual and reproductive health disparities faced by black and minority ethnic women; and funding community sexual and reproductive health training posts.

Among the organisations that signed Barter’s letter was the National Pharmacy Association, Company Chemists’ Association, Royal Pharmaceutical Society and UK Clinical Pharmacy Association.

RPS president Claire Anderson said: “All women should have equal access to reproductive healthcare. Pharmacists play a crucial role in providing accessible healthcare, and standardising access to reproductive healthcare will significantly benefit women and reduce health inequalities.

“We hope the new Government will work with us to ensure every individual can access the sexual and reproductive health services they need.”