Birth Control

Most of us have heard what happened last Friday; Rush Limbaugh attacked Georgetown Law Student Sandra Fluke calling her names that aren’t fit to be printed. Many people responded; some were rightfully outraged while others brushed off his statement. Not surprisingly, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who just two weeks ago refused to let Ms. Fluke testify during the committee’s all-male expert contraceptive coverage hearing, did not come to Ms. Fluke’s defense. Instead in a letter to the committee Issa countered with, “I am struck by your clear failure to recognize your own contributions to the denigration of this discussion and attacks on people of religious faith.” Is it just me or did he just insinuate Rush’s comments were okay because both sides are engaging in the argument? This eye for an eye mentality has to stop for many reasons. One of the most important being it is immature, childish, and ultimately sets a bad example for our nation’s youth on how to deal with important and legitimate disagreements on policy issues.

Take Beantown Mom’s recent blog post about her sixteen year old daughter being bullied because of needing to take contraceptives for a serious medical condition. These teenagers used Rush Limbaugh’s words to hurt this young woman. No matter how much Rush apologizes, sincere or not, damage has already been done. Read more »

Last week we told you about the House Committee on Oversight hearing that spent three hours addressing why employers should not have to cover birth control – without a single woman on the first panel of witnesses. Representative Darrell Issa, Chairman of the Committee, barred Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke from the panel.

Chairman Issa questioned Fluke’s experience and he said that, as a student, she wasn’t qualified to testify. Thursday, Sandra responded to that assertion. “I’m an American woman who uses contraceptives,” she said. That’s what makes her qualified.

Well, this week she received the respect she deserved and ears to listen. Sandra made it on to a number of news shows, and on Thursday – a week after being rejected from the initial hearing – she finally got her chance to speak on Capitol Hill. Fluke then explained that since Georgetown University doesn’t cover contraceptives, a friend of hers eventually had to have one of her ovaries surgically removed. Oral contraceptives would have prevented the growth of a cyst the size of a tennis ball, but her friend could not afford the out-of-pocket costs. Read more »

After living as a college student in DC for three years, I’d never been to the Capitol. I’ve toured the White House, visited the monuments, seen the Smithsonian museums, but never got a chance to go to Capitol Hill. Now I can say that I have finally crossed it off my list.

This week I had the opportunity to visit one of America’s greatest institutions. However, this great institution could soon be voting on a not-so-great amendment; an amendment that puts my health and the health of others at risk.

I attended a briefing on Capitol Hill presented by NWLC’s own Judy Waxman about the Blunt Amendment that may soon be voted on in the Senate. This amendment would give employers and insurers the option to refuse to cover a health care service that is against their religious or moral beliefs.

Last week, President Obama announced an accommodation to the contraceptive coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act that protects women’s access to this critical preventive health service while accommodating the opposition to the service by religiously-affiliated institutions. The Blunt Amendment is a new tactic to undo this advance for women’s health. However, this amendment goes far beyond overturning contraceptive coverage and would compromise the employees’ or beneficiaries’ health care services. Read more »

You’ve probably seen the photo by now of the witness panel at yesterday morning’s House hearing entitled “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church & State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion?” What you may not be able to tell immediately by looking at this photo is that there is no witness to represent the House minority viewpoint. What is immediately obvious is that there were no female witnesses on that panel. But, I was there to witness it and I am here to testify.

From the title and from Chairman Issa’s opening statement, you would have thought that this was a hearing on freedom of religion. But from the start, it wasn’t. The Chairman rejected the minority’s witness, Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student at Georgetown University who was going to testify about experiences of students who don’t have contraceptive coverage. Rep. Issa said that he wanted only the most “qualified” clergy and lay people to discuss the issue of religious freedom. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Carolyn Maloney walked out on the hearing, furious that Chairman Issa wouldn’t allow them to have a witness.

Then, it was time for that all-male panel you’ve seen in the picture to give their opening statements. What did they say? Bishop Lori compared requiring preventive health services, including birth control, to requiring Kosher delis to serve ham sandwiches. Read more »

Call your Senators NOW!

Call 1-888-838-5169 to tell your Senators to oppose the Blunt Amendment because it would eliminate access to no-cost birth control and other critical health care services.

Last week, President Obama announced that he would continue to protect women's access to birth control without co-pays or deductibles regardless of where they work, including at certain religiously-affiliated employers, while accommodating religious institutions' opposition to contraception.

Despite this accommodation, opponents of birth control in Congress are continuing their attacks on the contraceptive coverage requirement and the Affordable Care Act and they're going to vote VERY SOON on the dangerous and harmful Blunt Amendment. Call 1-888-838-5169 now to tell your Senators to reject the Blunt Amendment. 

The Blunt Amendment would, among other things, allow any corporation whose CEO opposes contraception based on his "moral convictions" to deny all coverage of contraception or any other health care service to the company's employees.

We need your help! Call 1-888-838-5169 TODAY to tell your Senators that you support the President's decision on birth control and oppose the Blunt Amendment because it would eliminate your access to no-cost birth control and other critical health care services. Read more »

Yesterday, President Obama made an announcement that took the responsibility from certain religiously-affiliated employers and gave it to insurance companies for covering contraception with no co-pays or deductibles. This accommodation will protect women's access to birth control and without extra cost, regardless of where they work. We will closely monitor the implementation of this new rule and work to make sure that all women have access to this essential health benefit.

However, opponents of birth control in Congress are still focused on taking away access to contraception introducing extreme legislation that threatens health across the board. The pieces of legislation range from allowing any employer, regardless of whether it is a religious entity, to deny coverage of contraception to giving employers the right to refuse coverage of any health care service they find religiously or morally objectionable.

They are playing politics with women's health – and it would hurt everyone. Tell your Senators to reject all extreme legislation that would take away women's access to birth control without a co-pay, and other needed health care. Read more »

Another weekly roundup has arrived! After the jump, we have a small collection of stories for you on Super Bowl ads, an MIT admissions project, a new report coming out next week, and details on where you can get the latest on contraceptive coverage. Read more »

I used to think that making a statement on the floor of Congress required showing some respect for the venue in which you are speaking, including refraining from making untrue statements. Yesterday, several members of Congress have proven to me, again, that for some of them this just isn’t the case anymore. When speaking on the House floor today, several members claimed that the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage rule would require employers to cover pills that cause abortions. This is simply false. The rule requires coverage of all FDA-approved contraceptive methods. What is an FDA-approved contraceptive method? That’s easy enough to find right here on the FDA website. Pills, patch, IUDs, etc. The members of the House are probably conflating emergency contraception, which is an FDA-approved contraceptive method, with abortion. But as my colleague Jill Morrison pointed out last week, it’s not. Read more »

Last week, together we secured a victory against efforts that would have harmed women's health. After hearing from women and men across the country, Susan G. Komen for the Cure reversed its decision to stop funding breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood health clinics. When people come together to protect access to critical women's health services, we're a force to be reckoned with.

But opponents of women's health are at it again. They're attacking the recent Obama administration decision to make contraception widely available to women without co-pays. Help us push back on these attacks on affordable access to birth control — tell the Obama administration you support no-cost birth control by signing the petition on the White House website. Read more »

Last February, the Department of Health and Human Services released an interim final rule stating that student health plans would be treated as individual health insurance plans, meaning that they would have to cover the women’s preventive health services. Let’s translate that out of “legal-ese:” the Department will require student health insurance plans (not student health centers) to cover preventive services for women, such as contraception, screening for sexually transmitted infections, and screening for interpersonal and domestic violence, without co-pays or deductibles. Read more »