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.
By Andrew Beck, Reproductive Freedom Project at 12:52pm
On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took the unprecedented step of overruling the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow the emergency contraceptive Plan B One-Step to be sold over-the-counter to consumers of all ages. Plan B One-Step has been approved for over-the-counter sale to people 17 and older since 2009, and when the manufacturer asked the FDA to remove the prescription-only status for those under 17, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (“CDER”) conducted a scientific study.
The attacks on common sense have begun again. The recently introduced House Labor and Health and Human Services FY12 spending bill makes massive cuts to the teen pregnancy prevention initiative (TPPI). It cuts the program by $85 million and, if that wasn’t bad enough, the bill allocates $20 million for abstinence-only programs. Adding insult to injury, the drafters of the bill cut research funding that could lead to more effective programs. Although teen pregnancy rates have decreased in the last couple of years, the U.S. still has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world. There’s no denying the need for medically accurate and age-appropriate sex education.
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.
By Laura W. Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:53pm
Far too often, government policies tend to be at odds with reality when it comes to women's reproductive health by ignoring the services that women need most. Which is why guidelines recently issued by the Department of Human Services requiring insurance coverage for contraception and other preventive services were so welcome. After all, virtually every woman of childbearing age practices some sort of contraception at some point.
