I can’t tell you how glad I am to actually be able to report positive news about women’s reproductive health care rights and health insurance: health insurance companies are going to have to pay for birth control for women without a co-pay in a year from now.
This is a monumental change and a giant step forward for women’s rights. The changes came after recommendations from Health and Human Services director Katherine Sebelius who said that birth control was one of the most-prescribed medications for women and should therefore be covered by insurance companies.
Religious organizations who provide women’s health coverage will not be forced to provide birth control for women. This part of the new directive regarding reproductive health care services may lead to a large discrepancy of available services and treatments for women across red and blue states and between rural and urban areas. Unsurprisingly, this portion of the law received criticism from women’s rights advocates and kudos from conservatives who do not support prescribing birth control.
A recent poll by NPR demonstrated that a majority of voters in the United States favor the inclusion of coverage for birth control and preventive treatment by health insurance companies. In addition, many who were polled also supported the use of federal funds for preventive health care services for women.
Access to reproductive health care services is largely needed in the United States, especially by the minority population. A 2004 report put out by the CDC demonstrates that there was a significantly higher number of pregnancies among hispanic and other non-white women than white women. The differences were staggeringly high in 2004: among 18-19 hispanic and black women, approximately one in five women had a pregnancy that ended either with a miscarriage or abortion. These statistics clearly indicate that more access to both birth control and contraception education is needed in minority communities. Hopefully, the recent changes in health care insurance will help alleviate the problem at least somewhat.
The abortion rates from the 2004 study also tell a sad story; in 2004, more than 20% of pregnancies ended in abortion. Since we know that a majority of birth control is effective--sometimes at rates of 99%--increased access to birth control and reproductive education is definitely needed among younger women.
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