Contraception

ACLU Lens: Using Religion as an Excuse for Discrimination

By Robyn Shepherd, ACLU at 12:21pm

This week, the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops is holding its annual meeting in Baltimore. The bishops are the lobbying arm of the Catholic church, and they hold substantial sway over lawmakers. But instead of focusing on issues like poverty or the economy, the bishops are instead complaining loudly that recent laws broadening women’s access to contraception and granting same-sex couples the freedom to marry amount to an assault on their religion.

However, as this Media Matters piece attests, this is hardly the case.

Reproductive Rights and Yesterday's Budget Release

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:03am

President Obama yesterday released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2014. Here are five things you should know about how it affects reproductive rights:

Home Rule for the District of Columbia

As he has each year of his presidency, President Obama removed the D.C. abortion ban from his budget proposal. That ban prohibits the District of Columbia from using its own locally raised funds to pay for abortion care for low-income D.C. residents. By contrast, all other states are permitted to use non-federal revenues to pay for abortion care if they so choose.

ACLU Lens: Contraception Coverage Good for Women but Debate Leads to Bigger Questions

By Meghan Groob, Media Relations Associate, ACLU at 3:04pm

Last week, the Obama administration released a proposed rule implementing the requirement that insurance plans cover birth control...

Twelve More Lawsuits, Still No Case

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:55pm
Every few weeks, opponents of birth control manage to garner some media attention by objecting – again – to the federal contraceptive coverage rule, which ensures that millions of women will have affordable insurance coverage for contraception without extra out-of-pocket costs. But time after time, it’s just more of the same. 

Keep Your Beliefs Out of My Birth Control

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:56pm

It's a big week for birth control. This Monday marked World Contraception Day — a day that raises awareness about contraception access around the globe. Today is the deadline for weighing in with the Department of Health and Human Services on important new guidelines that ensure coverage of contraception in health plans without extra out-of-pocket costs — along with a narrow exception that allows certain religious institutions like churches, synagogues, and mosques, to exclude birth control from their health plans.

Whose Religious Freedom?

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 5:32pm

The freedom of religion and belief is one of our most cherished liberties. The First Amendment protects our right to believe whatever we choose. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) would like you to think this right is in peril. As defenders of the Constitution, we beg to differ, and think that some of the recent controversies actually show that the First Amendment is doing its job, and confirm that religious freedom in America is alive and well.

Change Is A-Coming (Or, as They Say in Oklahoma, "If I Wanted Government in My Womb, I'd F*ck a Senator.")

By Jennifer Dalven, Reproductive Freedom Project at 1:32pm

I am so excited I am beside myself. I'm a long-time reproductive health advocate looking at politicians around the country lining up to make it harder for a woman to get birth control, to defund Planned Parenthood, and to set up demeaning and obstructive roadblocks for women seeking abortions. And yet I am positively giddy. Why?

I am giddy because I can see that change is a coming. Those who would turn back the clock to the days of the aspirin-between-the-knees method of birth control have gone too far. And women across the country have had enough.

Opposing Birth Control In the Name of Feminism? Really?

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 10:35am

(Also posted to Feministing.)

Last week, the Institute of Medicine, an independent medical authority, recommended that birth control – more specifically, the full range of FDA approved contraceptives – be among the services covered by new insurance plans under the national health care reform law. If the recommendation is endorsed, birth control would be covered in all new plans without a co-pay, as would yearly preventative, primary care visits for women. It’s about time. 

Court’s Ruling to Allow Employer to Discriminate Out of Step; Threatens Women’s Health

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 4:30pm

A federal court in Colorado today put a temporary halt on the implementation of the Obama administration’s contraceptive coverage rule, with respect to one company. The contraceptive coverage rule requires insurance plans to cover contraception and stop routinely discriminating against women. The decision, if upheld, could pave the way for businesses to use their owners’ religion as an excuse to discriminate. 

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