A young woman named Gabby -- a fellow Texan -- wrote to me from her home in Austin to tell me that she recently had to choose between paying for her birth control and getting her car repaired. Actually, for Gabby, there was no choice at all. Without the car, she can't make a living. So she did what she had to do. She skipped her shot of Depo -- a long-acting contraceptive -- paid the mechanic, and took her chances.
That's a gamble no woman should have to take.
But hey -- the great news is that on Monday, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a valentine to women across America. Under the Affordable Care Act, women's preventive care will be covered with no co-pays -- and this includes birth control.
This is extraordinary news that will provide millions of women who will soon have insurance the ability to get the birth control that today they may not be able to afford. So Gabby, and millions of women like her, won't be choosing between birth control and car repairs.
There are 34 million reasons that this new policy is a good one -- that's the number of women will have access to birth control without co-pays come 2013. But today -- here's my Top Ten.
WHY BIRTH CONTROL WITH NO CO-PAYS IS A GREAT THING!
10. Everyone uses it! Ninety-nine percent of sexually active women in America have used it to prevent unintended pregnancy.
9. Birth control does lots of good things for women, in addition to helping them plan their families! Some forms of birth control are used to prevent anemia and endometriosis, and can help prevent ovarian and endometrial cancers.
8. Too many women in the U.S. have unintended pregnancies, and a big part of it is lack of access to birth control. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of unintended pregnancy among the world's most developed countries, and half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned.
7. Birth control can be expensive! Even with insurance, many women end up paying $50 a month for birth control pills, and much more for longer-acting methods like the IUD. More than half of women in the U.S. between ages 18 and 34 say the cost of birth control has made it harder for them to use it consistently.
6. It's good for the budget! Today, unintended pregnancy costs the U.S. taxpayers $11 billion a year. For every $1 we invest in making birth control accessible, taxpayers save nearly $4 in the costs of unintended pregnancy.
5. Birth control access in the U.S. is unequal -- just like health care access -- and it's time that every woman had the ability to plan when to have children. For example, nearly 60 percent of young adult Latina women and more than half of young adult African-American women have struggled to pay for prescription birth control.
4. Affordable birth control means better birth control. When cost is not a concern, women are more likely to choose more effective birth control methods. Imagine -- making your birth control decision based on what fits you rather than what fits your wallet!
3. Women with unintended pregnancies may end up with less education, earn less, and have a harder time supporting their families. Their children may be less likely to finish high school.
2. And it's not just birth control! The announcement by HHS also includes coverage without co-pays for cervical cancer and HPV screenings, counseling and screening for HIV, counseling for STDs, and other important preventive care.
And the #1 Reason: No woman in America should ever have to choose between groceries and birth control again!
Planned Parenthood has been the leading provider of birth control services and education in America for 95 years, and we celebrate this historic step forward for a basic American value -- the ability to plan your family.
HHS is also taking comments on this new ruling for the next 60 days, and it is weighing the inclusion of a "refusal clause" that would allow some religious employers to deny women access to this vital preventive health care. This move could keep many women from getting coverage for birth control -- simply because their employer doesn't believe in it.
Now is the time to let HHS know that we fully support their decision to help ALL American women have better access to preventive care, and that ALL women, regardless of their employer or insurer, should have timely access to affordable birth control if they want it or need it.
Visit this link for more information and to make your voice heard.
What are your top reasons that affordable birth control makes sense for women and for America? Now's the time. Speak up and let HHS know that Birth Control Matters!
Follow Cecile Richards on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cecilerichards
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Women are saying that it's about time their medical insurance, which they buy with their own money or earn through their own employment, recognizes that there is 'woman only' preventative care which should be included. Women are well aware of the outrageous cost of insurance -- they PAY those premiums. They would just like to have a reasonable percentage of those premiums returned in the form of coverage for the things they actually need.
The ones claiming the prescriptions would be 'free' were the men, who ignored that we were talking about private insurance purchased by individuals and kept insisting the taxpayer would have to pay. Men who claimed since women didn't 'need' to have sex they didn't 'need' birth control because 'pregnancy isn't a disease'. It makes no sense at all to me for men to insist they should be able to censor the coverage women buy from private insurance companies on the basis that men don't think women should be having sex. The only reason women NEED birth control is because the sex they are having includes men. Provision of birth control protects BOTH a man and a woman from unwanted pregnancy, can't get more fair than that.
http://www.healthcare.gov/law/about/provisions/services/lists.html
Note that it includes for men or both men and women the following:
•Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm one-time screening for men of specified ages who have ever smoked
•Alcohol Misuse screening and counseling
•Aspirin use for men and women of certain ages
•Blood Pressure screening for all adults
•Cholesterol screening for adults of certain ages or at higher risk
•Colorectal Cancer screening for adults over 50
•Depression screening for adults
•Type 2 Diabetes screening for adults with high blood pressure
•Diet counseling for adults at higher risk for chronic disease
•HIV screening for all adults at higher risk
•Immunizations
•Obesity screening and counseling for all adults
•Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) prevention counseling for adults at higher risk
•Tobacco Use screening for all adults and cessation interventions for tobacco users
•Syphilis screening for all adults at higher risk
Do not conflate those who legitimately wish to use contraception and be responsible, but face financial barriers with irresponsible breeders.
And is this woman so pitiable that she can't say to her SO, "hey, honey, I need you to pay for the birth control". Or maybe "tonight would be a bad night". Or "gotta wrap that rascal."
Please. There is absolutely no reason for the taxpayers to be subsidizing this woman's bedroom activities.
What sense does it make for the Obama administration to give rich and middle-class women a break on their birth control costs? Why force everyone who buys medical insurance to pay more so that wealthy and middle class folks can get cheaper pills and thrills? If making birth control more accessible to the poor is so important, why not just give out government vouchers for "free" birth control pills to the needy? Hand them out with the food stamps. This would be expensive, but in the long run it would far less burden on society than forcing everybody's health insurance costs up to shower entitlements on people who don't need them.
Making birth control accessible is important to EVERYONE. It benefits society as a whole. Less prenatal and labor and delivery care for the insured as well as the uninsured. And perhaps, less ovarian and uterine cancer.
I seriously doubt this will make your premiums rise more than the ballooning weight of the average American overeater.
If what you're worried about women being "thrilled", rest assured that after a couple of years of marriage for most women the thrill is gone.
2. We are talking about insurance co-pays. Virtually all health plans for all medical and dental goods and services require some co-pay or deductible to be paid by the patient. You have utterly failed to explain why contraceptives (or other women's health concerns for that matter) should be treated differently, or why affluent people deserve to have other people pay for their routine, elective use of birth control.
3. I'm not worried at all about women getting thrills. Moaning turns me on. (I generally think that people should pay for their own moans, though.)
You have hit the nail on the head with each and every post I have seen here. You seem to be a very strong woman and I bet your child(ren) is/are very proud of you. I developed moderate adult-onset acne in my mid 20s and birth control has relieved a lot of the breaking out. I mentioned that earlier and was ridiculed because apparently I should just deal with the embarrassment and occasional pain?
These people are the same ones who blow smoke in the surgeon general's face and wave a fried chicken leg in front of the First Lady, yet when women say "I like sex and I don't want to get pregnant," and private insurance will help, they freak out. Thanks for your wisdom and honesty.
-CM
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/preventingpregnancy/fertilityawarenessNFP.html
Personally, it makes me pretty suspicious of the value of an idea when those promoting it have to keep changing the name so as to prevent people from using Google to figure out it doesn't work.
Hi Crow!
I notice that the "controlling your urges" admonition, BTW, comes mostly (although not exclusively) from the right-wing males who apparently have a lot of practice in that particular method, having no other options available to them. ;) Of course given an opportunity, they forget to control their own urges all too easily, but still like to pontificate to others.
You had asked what I meant about knowing I should be bad. I hate the complete irrationality of it, but I have decided to go with it partway, excusing via the ends justifying the meanness. For my wife I have decided to be bad by "making her want to" by simple manipulation, as well as direct coercion, since calm logic and assuaging niceties never did work. I also resolved to be bad to other women, precisely and merely by responding meanly to their unwarranted negative comments and complaints, especially their inevitable critiques of my appearance.
Narrative begins. I wanted to get my wife off away for almost a week, especially away from her fretting over her mother and sisters. I still hadn't told her we were going to the Ozarks, at first so it would be a surprise, but also so she wouldn't micromanage. She was on her usual negative kick, not wanting to go, and not wanting to stay "I hate this house", but I had prepaid nonrefundable four nights in a cabin on a lake. I was already packed the night before, but she took six hours getting ready, so we stopped overnight. She hated the motel, the restaurant, the me. The next morning she whined and delayed and complained the whole way, but we finally made it a day late.
contd
His mother had earlier hollered something unintelligible harshly. She eventually wandered over in a large flannel shirt. The boy and I ceased our cavorting at her approach. She sneered "Are we having fun yet?" "We WERE having fun", I teased. She instantly managed "You look too old to have fun" which was the expected goad. I gamely parried "You look like you haven't had any fun yourself since you were young", my first intentional mean. And it was true: she was clearly no fun, dumpy, old already in her late thirties, hard faced, potato-shaped body. I didn't know what to expect in reply - anger, sadness, laughter maybe if she was intelligent, unlikely as that ever is. Instead she sat down near me on the side of the pier.
contd
Unwanted children are more likely to be abused and end up in foster care. 90% of all people on death row were once in foster care. Providing bc would mean, this group of people would no longer exist because of preventative measures.
I am a single parent because the father walked away. You cannot assume that every male that partakes in the baby making process will stick around. Still I take no money from the government in any sort of welfare program and never have nor do I receive child support, which I am very proud of because I can provide for myself and my son. I took precautions then, and still ended up getting pregnant and alone, but I am footing the bill so nobody else has a right to complain.
Also, I do have a solid insurance plan and still have to pay $60 every 3 months for Depo and that's one of the cheaper options. Anybody who takes bc is proactive in preventing future unplanned pregnancies and are still getting bashed for it. Still, bc is not always affordable for every person.