Birth Control Benefit for Women Preserved, CRR Calls for END TO Attacks on Women’s Health
(PRESS RELEASE) The Obama Administration has committed to preserve the no-copay birth control benefit for all women under the Affordable Care Act, according to an announcement today that employees at religiously-affiliated institutions will be able to access the coverage without co-pay directly from their insurers.
Said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights:
“The Obama Administration is as good as its word. Millions of women across the country will have equal access to contraception without co-pay, without fear that their employers may refuse to cover this critical health service.
“Now, the relentless crusade against women’s access to birth control must end. Members of Congress must support full and equal health care for all American women and immediately reject any further efforts to deny coverage of contraception as a critical preventive healthcare service.”
Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) recently introduced legislation that would prohibit the federal government from mandating that employers cover no-copay birth control in their insurance plans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blocked an attempt yesterday by Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to add an amendment to an unrelated highway bill that would allow exceptions to the coverage if employers were religiously or morally opposed to it.
“We will be watching the implementation of the Administration’s regulation closely to ensure that no woman is denied access to contraceptive coverage by her employer,” Northup said.