Last week, the Obama administration stood for reproductive rights and refused to broaden exemptions to a rule that requires employers to provide health insurance for contraception.
Today, the Obama administration announced that it would keep in place a proposed rule that ensures that new insurance plans include contraception coverage.
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.
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.
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.
