In 1993, the Commission on Women successfully initiated its first program on breast cancer, informing ABA members about issues affecting women with breast cancer. Over 100 attorneys from around the country participated in this program, which featured a wide variety of speakers such as Gloria Steinem, U.S. Representative Nita Lowey and several notable public health experts.

There are over 400,000 ABA members around the world. Twenty-eight percent of the members are women, mirroring their representation in the profession. Members of the ABA look to the Commission on Women for guidance on policy and legal issues impacting women. Because of its stature within the ABA, the Commission is ideally positioned to lead and implement a new public education initiative designed to protect the legal rights of breast cancer patients.

The Breast Cancer Legal Advocacy Initiative kicked off with a day-long series of events during the ABA 2000 Annual Meeting in New York City. The program featured a host of distinguished experts on breast cancer treatments, public policies and related legal issues. Three Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars were provided for attorneys wishing to serve as legal advocates for breast cancer patients.

In addition, the Commission is working closely with national women's bar associations, the public health community and with other ABA entities to establish a clearinghouse of information on breast cancer in the law, and in planning, implementing and promoting this very important project. We are committed to educating women, attorneys and policymakers on the range of legal issues impacting women's health. The establishment of our Breast Cancer Legal Advocacy Clearinghouse is an important first step toward this goal.

The Commission often receives communications by women seeking legal assistance related to their breast cancer conditions. However, it is the policy of the ABA that referrals to specific counsel may not be made by staff receiving such communications. Many local, state, and specialty bar associations have referral programs. Yet, these same bar referral programs do not make the connection between those counsel specifically trained to provide legal advocacy for women with breast cancer and the client/patient(s) seeking assistance. We recognize the advocacy services for which you have received training do not easily fit into a single or traditional category, such as consumer, medical malpractice, or insurance law. Therefore, it is very important that once counsel are trained, each lawyer contact their various bar referral programs to alert those making referrals that you are available, ready, willing and able to provide assistance to breast cancer patients. In addition, if each trained lawyer would provide a list of the bar referral services they associate with to the Commission, the staff of the Commission would be able to direct any inquiry to bar referral programs in the inquirer’s geographic area.

The Commission believes that the good works of lawyers trained to provide legal services to women with breast cancer can only be realized by connecting those with needs to those with knowledge. Networking to promote the connection between patient/client and lawyer is part of and essential to the process. The Commission thanks you in advance for your future good works in this endeavor.

Often the difference between life and death for breast cancer patients depends upon the types of treatment and services their health insurance carrier will cover. With some of the most innovative treatments being routinely labeled as "experimental" by many insurance companies, there is a need for legal representation in cases where women have exhausted all their options.

Women with breast cancer are sometimes unaware of their legal options to appeal decisions made by their insurance carriers. Also, many women without resources rarely challenge or appeal health insurance decisions which deny coverage for health care treatments and services. Unfortunately, for those who are aware of their legal options, there are insufficient numbers of pro bono attorneys willing or capable of representing women who have been denied health care coverage.

Because of the dearth of trained legal professionals in this area of practice, the Commission on Women conducted training sessions during the 2000 ABA Annual Meeting, for attorneys interested in providing these much needed legal services. The Commission on Women is leading a national effort to recruit and train attorneys for these cases. We conducted the first of these Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs during the ABA Annual Meeting in July 2000, Negotiating the Best Legal Outcomes for Breast Cancer Patients. The Commission also conducted a national public education initiative to inform women about their rights to challenge and appeal health insurance decisions (see: 10 Steps to Protecting Your Legal Rights).