Tag Archive for 'Repro Health Watch'

Through the Looking Glass on Contraceptive Coverage

Published on February 6, 2012 in Debra Ness, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 18 Comments Tags: .

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Birth control is basic health care for women. So the recent firestorm of criticism about the administration’s decision that insurers must cover all FDA-approved contraceptives without co-pay is, at best, overwrought.

The religious community, led by the Catholic Church, has overreacted in ways that have distorted the administration’s actions. Contrary to their claims, no individual health care provider will be forced to prescribe contraception, nor will any woman be forced to buy or use contraception.

Perhaps more importantly, to set the record straight, no church or other house of worship will be required to offer employees coverage for contraceptive health services. That’s the carve-out for religious institutions. It’s a big one. (Religiously affiliated institutions, including large hospitals and universities, that employ people of different faiths, will have to provide coverage.)

So why the furor? At its core, it’s because many opponents of a woman’s right to choose also oppose contraception. They don’t want women to exercise their consciences or get the contraceptive coverage they need.

These are extreme views far outside the mainstream.

So let’s be clear. Ensuring women’s access to contraception means fewer unintended pregnancies, healthier women and stronger families.

That’s why there’s an overwhelming consensus in this country that women should have coverage for contraception. Twenty-eight states already require insurers to cover contraception. Ensuring that coverage for women in every state, without expensive co-pays, is one of the most important advances for women in the health reform law.

That advance is long overdue. Nearly all women of reproductive age use contraception – including 98 percent of Catholic women. Reproductive health care is women’s health care.

Refusing to allow employers to substitute their views for those of women was the right thing to do.

So it’s time for all of us to take a stand. It’s time to urge every member of Congress to say ‘no’ to Senator Marco Rubio’s irresponsible legislation, which would dramatically expand the birth-control refusal clause and potentially allow any employer to use personal religious beliefs to deny contraceptive coverage to employees.

At times these days, it feels like we’ve stepped through the looking glass. Those who oppose abortion want to deny women the contraceptive coverage that reduces unintended pregnancies. The Susan G. Komen organization withdraws funds to Planned Parenthood, which screens millions of women for breast cancer.

These are bad decisions, bad policy, bad for women’s health.

If you care about women’s health, you put your ideology aside and you help make contraception and breast cancer screening available.

The Administration’s rule exempting churches and other religious institutions from the refusal clause is a compromise that should not be weakened.

After 39 Years, Let’s End the War on Women

Published on January 22, 2012 in Debra Ness, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 8 Comments Tags: .

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

It’s been 39 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade – but the battles over access to the full range of reproductive health care services still rage on.

In 2011, the number of abortion restrictions introduced in state legislatures reached a three-decade high. But such laws – like the ultrasound law in Texas, which requires providers to perform ultrasounds, describe the fetus and give women the option to hear the fetal heartbeat – aren’t just problematic in that they put barriers between women and their health care.  They are affirmatively bad for women’s health. They require unnecessary and invasive procedures not recommended by doctors. This is especially problematic when women are directed or tricked into seeking care at crisis pregnancy centers – which often have no qualified medical professionals on staff.

Women deserve sound medical advice from actual medical professionals.

The Texas sonogram law is just one example of the attacks on women’s reproductive health over the past year. They have been far-reaching and dangerous – and anti-choice extremists show no signs of letting up.

Not only is access to abortion services out of reach for many women, but so is birth control, maternity care, and social services to help them raise healthy families. It’s time to recommit to protecting and expanding common sense policies that improve women’s health by providing access to affordable, high quality reproductive health services. The National Partnership has joined the Trust Women Silver Ribbon Campaign virtual march to make sure our elected officials know that restricting women’s health services is unacceptable. Join us!

Birth Control Under Attack

Published on November 22, 2011 in Debra Ness, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 5 Comments Tags: .

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Anti-choice extremists are trying to undermine women’s right to birth control under the Affordable Care Act. The health reform law covers preventive services, including birth control, without copays, deductibles or other added cost. For most women of reproductive age, contraception and birth control are the care they need most, the care they get most regularly, and their main reason for interacting with health providers, so this is one of the greatest benefits to women from the new law.

We were thrilled in August when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agreed and announced that women will have access to all approved contraceptive methods without co-pays or added cost under the Affordable Care Act.

But all women need this coverage. The administration included an unfair, broad — and potentially terribly harmful — exemption for certain religious employers, who would not have to provide coverage for contraception to their employees.

Too much is on the line for these women who rely on insurance to pay for their birth control. That’s why we’re urging President Obama to do what’s right for women’s health — to remove this religious refusal provision and not leave any women behind.

Tell President Obama that all women need access to contraception without co-pays or added cost, including women who work for religious employers!

Let’s not leave any woman to fend for herself.

In Science v. Politics, Science Scores a Win

Published on July 21, 2011 in Debra Ness, Health Care, Reform, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 0 Comments Tags: .

Debra Ness, President

A milestone for women’s health is finally within reach: On Tuesday, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified the full range of FDA-approved contraception and birth control options as preventive health services – and recommended that they be made available to women without additional fees or co-payment under health care reform. IOM’s decision, which was based on strong scientific evidence, finally confirms what most women already know: that birth control is basic preventive care.

Preventive care is at the heart of the Affordable Care Act, so IOM’s recommendation is an encouraging step toward realizing the promise of health care reform for women. For most women of reproductive age, contraception and birth control are the care they need most, the care they get most regularly, and their main reason for interacting with health providers and thereby receiving other kinds of health care they need. Timely access to contraceptive services vastly improves maternal and child health, and it has been the driving force in reducing rates of unintended pregnancy in this country.

On average, women spend at least 30 years being sexually active but trying to avoid pregnancy. But with 30 years of fertility comes 30 years of expensive contraception – and studies show that even minimal co-pays deter individuals from obtaining the care they need. [1] In fact, one study found that low-income Americans reduced their use of effective health care by 44 percent when required to make co-pays. [2] In 2008, 36 million women — more than half of women of reproductive age — needed contraceptive services and supplies. [3] Of that group, 17.4 million needed publicly funded contraception. [4] For these women, eliminating expensive co-pays is the key to ensuring they have access to the care they need. So IOM’s recommendation is vital to the health of millions of individual women — and of our country as a whole.

At long last, it’s time to put politics aside. These science-based recommendations must guide policy, and politics should not intrude.  Secretary Sebelius should move quickly to make these recommendations policy under the Affordable Care Act, so women are able to access the contraceptive services they truly need. It’s about time.

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[1] Solanki G and Schauffler HH, Cost-sharing and the utilization of clinical preventive services, Am J Prev Medicine 17, no.2 (Aug 1999) 127-133.
[2] Ku L, Charging the Poor More for Health Care: Cost-Sharing in Medicaid, Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2003.
[3] Frost JJ, Henshaw SK and Sonfield A, Contraceptive needs and services: national and state data, 2008 update, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2010.
[4] Frost JJ, Henshaw SK and Sonfield A, Contraceptive needs and services: national and state data, 2008 update, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2010.

Relentless. Deceptive. Dangerous.

Published on May 5, 2011 in Debra Ness, Health Care, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 2 Comments Tags: .

Debra Ness, President

The “war on women” in the House of Representatives rages on.

We’re only four months into the new Congress, and already the House has attempted to defund and repeal health care reform; defund Planned Parenthood; and eliminate the Title X family planning program that provides comprehensive preventive health care services to millions of low-income women. The majority in the House was even willing to shut down the federal government in order to get their way.

They are relentless – and they are just getting started.

Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 3,  deceptively called the ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. This callous bill threatens women’s health by eliminating insurance coverage for abortion care for millions of women. It would permanently deny insurance coverage for abortion care in federally supported health plans and then impose this extreme anti-choice ideology on the private insurance market. The bill would raise taxes and increase costs on   individuals and small businesses with private health plans that cover this basic service.

If women’s lives and the well-being of women and their families mattered to the majority in the House, Members would have rejected this appalling bill – but instead they took one more step down the road that puts women in danger and denies our access to basic reproductive health care.

We must prevent this legislation from becoming law. We can’t let opponents take away our access to the full range of reproductive health services.

The ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act’ is deceptive, politically-motivated and dangerous to women. It isn’t just about ensuring that taxpayers don’t pay for insurance coverage of abortion.  Unjust federal laws already do that – and for decades these policies have  been causing grave harm to low-income women, military women, and other women who face unintended pregnancies and rely on federally supported health insurance plans. H.R. 3 would make those restrictions permanent in U.S. law and extend these harmful restrictions to the private market.

The bottom line:  H.R. 3 is about making abortion and other reproductive health care less accessible for all women. Its supporters don’t want abortion to be legal, so they are doing all they can to make it more difficult and costly for women to safely get this legal and routine medical procedure. Restricting insurance coverage of abortion does not reduce the need for abortion; such policies simply force women seeking abortion care to obtain services later in pregnancy when it is more costly and difficult.

Please join us in urging the Senate to reject this dangerous bill.

Let’s Not Reverse Our Progress on Stopping HIV/AIDS

Published on March 10, 2011 in Health Care, Laura Hessburg, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 0 Comments Tags: .

Laura Hessburg, Senior Health Policy Advisor

Today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, when we should all pause to remember that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still shaping and taking too many lives, in the United States and around the globe.

Unfortunately, the callous “war on women” being waged by leaders in the House of Representatives, which includes shameful attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and Title X family planning services, threatens to cause grave harm to people who are HIV-positive.

Consider this: In the United States, HIV affects nearly 280,000 women. Analyses by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) show that HIV is most prevalent among those living in low-income communities. There are strong links between HIV and poverty. The American HIV/AIDS epidemic is also characterized by strong racial and ethnic disparities, with people of color significantly more likely to be infected than those who are White.

Women with low incomes and women of color rely even more heavily than others on Title X-funded clinics as their health care safety net.

Title X clinics are indispensable in the fight against HIV. A government review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) once concluded that “[w]omen who utilize Title X… services as their primary source of health care have significantly greater odds of receiving contraceptive services and/or care for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than women who utilize private physicians or HMOs.”

In 2009, Title X providers performed more than six million tests for STIs, including nearly one million HIV tests.  Services funded through Title X  include essential counseling and education on HIV and other reproductive health issues.  This education is key to preventing the further spread of HIV, especially at a time when the CDC estimates that one in five people living with HIV infection in the United States do not know they are infected.

If Congress eliminates funding for Title X and Planned Parenthood, women’s health will suffer terribly. Efforts to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic will be hampered.  New HIV and other STI infections will go undetected.  Even more people with HIV will go without the treatment that can save their lives.

We are counting on the Senate and President Obama to stand strong for women and their families, and block all measures that will harm women’s health.

Please tell your Senators to prioritize women’s health and ensure that all women have access to the reproductive health services they need.

Just When You Think You’ve Seen It All

Published on February 28, 2011 in Debra Ness, Health Care, Reform, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 21 Comments Tags: .

 

Debra Ness, President

Sometimes I think there’s not much that can surprise me. But last week proved that theory wrong: the U.S. House of Representatives voted to prohibit federal funds for health care services provided by Planned Parenthood, and eliminate funding for all Title X family planning services, which are the sole source of health care for millions of low-income and uninsured women in this nation. And because, apparently, even that wasn’t enough, they also voted to defund the federal agencies and personnel that are working to implement health reform, which is the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation.

House leaders are willing to risk shutting down the federal government in order to advance their anti-woman, anti-reform agenda.

If these measures pass the Senate, unintended pregnancies in this country will skyrocket, fewer women will be screened for breast and cervical cancers and sexually transmitted infections, and women’s health will suffer terribly because millions of women will lose their primary source of health care. Planned Parenthood clinics in communities across the country will be at risk for closing.

Representatives Jackie Speier and Gwen Moore helped remind us about what is at stake with these votes when they shared their personal stories. They drove home the stakes in this debate, and the human impact of what the House is trying to do.  Their courage made it even more appalling to watch a majority of their colleagues callously vote to take away women’s health care.

We are counting on our Senators and President Obama to block these short-sighted, dangerous cuts, and to stand strong for women and their families. Tell your Senators: hands off my health care (and family planning too)!

Time to Protect Common Sense.

Published on January 22, 2011 in Debra Ness, Health Care, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 5 Comments Tags: .

Debra Ness, President

On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, which established a woman’s right to privacy and to make her own reproductive health decisions. 38 years later, that right – and women’s ability to access it – are at risk.

The November election put in place more federal and state lawmakers who oppose a woman’s right to choose. The extreme measures proposed by these lawmakers are at odds with the majority of Americans who do not want women to lose access to reproductive health services.

For the majority of Americans who do not want to return to the days when abortion was illegal, there is a lot of work ahead. We have opponents in Congress who are determined to undermine our right to choose and deny us access to reproductive health care.  Our goal, quite simply, must be to ensure that all women — regardless of their income, where they live, whether they serve in the military — can access a full range of reproductive health services that includes abortion care.

We urge Congress to reject the outrageous “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which would reduce the availability of abortion coverage in the private insurance market nationwide, narrow the already limited rape and incest provisions in the Hyde Amendment, and permanently deny low-income and military women access to health coverage that includes this essential care.

Lawmakers should end the divisive efforts to take away women’s right to choose and impede women’s access to basic health care, and instead focus on preventing unintended pregnancies. Today, half the pregnancies in our country are unintended and by age 45, about one-third of women will have had an abortion. Making family planning services available to everyone who needs them, and offering all youth unbiased and comprehensive sexuality education, are essential to effective efforts to reduce our nation’s staggering rates of unintended pregnancy. That should be a top priority.

Currently, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is considering whether to include birth control services and supplies in the package of preventive services that health plans will be required to cover without deductibles or co-pays, as provided for in the Affordable Care Act. A decision to include birth control services without cost-sharing would be a welcome step in the work to reduce unintended pregnancy.

At the National Partnership, we will continue to work tirelessly to protect and expand common sense policies that improve women’s health by providing access to affordable, high quality reproductive health services – and there are ways you can help. Please start by telling your Senators to prioritize women’s health and ensure that women have access to the reproductive health services they need.