If you had any lingering hope that the Institute of Medicine could recommend including contraception in the list of preventive services that should be offered without co-pay and not have a hysterical reaction from anti-choicers, I’m afraid I’ll have to dash those hopes.
Just weeks after publication of a major report underscoring the benefits of robust U.S. investment in family planning worldwide, the GOP-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee voted in the early hours of the morning today to reinstate the Global Gag Rule with broader and more damaging implications than ever before.
The Defense of Marriage Act denies a host federal benefits to those gay and lesbian couples who have legally married in DC and the six states that recognize same-sex marriage. Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on a repeal of that discriminatory law.
Virtually every one of the IOM recommendations will greatly benefit Latina women. whether they are seeking to plan and space pregnancies, have healthy pregnancies, keep their infants healthy, or get basic preventive healthcare.
Advocates' success in winning contraceptive access has often been hard fought on a state-by-state basis, with many challenges along the way. But in adotping the Institute of Medicine's recommendations, the Obama Adminsitration can transcend this piecemeal approach by enacting comprehensive, nationwide reform.
In the last few weeks, I learned that Bristol Palin was on the pill and all of the stars of 16 and Pregnant used condoms. I find this slightly curious because, as we know, all of them ended up parents before they graduated from high school. If I didn’t know any better, I would start to wonder if contraception just doesn’t work. But since I do know better, I am instead left wondering if the media is letting our most famous teen get one over on us and in the process perpetuating myths and misunderstandings about birth control.
The Affordable Care Act provides a huge opportunity to make sure US women have access to contraception. Contraception should be on the list of preventive medicines and services that don’t require a co-pay—that makes health and fiscal sense.
