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Christian Fundamentalists Campaign Against ContraceptivesPlease note : You'll find reports on the religious right's efforts to block access to Plan B, the "morning-after" emergency contraceptive, in the section on Plan B and the section on pharmacist refusal. Rift grows over unintended pregnanciesBy David Crary, Associated Press, FoxNews.com, June 7, 2007 NEW YORK -- America's conflicted attitude toward sex is at the heart of an intriguing political struggle unfolding this year in Congress and many states, as liberals and conservatives spar over bills aimed at reducing the huge number of unintended pregnancies. To the liberal coalition backing the measures, the so-called Prevention First initiative is a commonsense package that would reduce the need for abortions by providing better information about contraceptives and expanding access to them. To conservatives, the initiative is an alarming effort to eliminate abstinence-only sex education, strengthen abortion-rights groups and encourage sex outside of marriage. "There's a utopian view that women ought to be able to have sex any time they want to without consequences - that's the bottom line of all these bills," said Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group which opposes the measures. Continue. Planned Parenthood Applauds House and Senate Introduction of ABC ActBill Would Guarantee Access to Birth Control and Stop Pharmacy RefusalsNews Release, Planned Parenthood via Common Dreams, June 6, 2007 Washington - June 6 - Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) today applauded Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Chris Shays (R-CT) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for introducing the "Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act." The act addresses the growing and troubling trend of pharmacy refusals, protecting women's access to birth control at pharmacies and guaranteeing they will receive prescriptions and over-the-counter products in-store, without discrimination or delay. PPFA, the nation's largest provider of emergency contraception (EC), applauded the ruling: "Emergency contraception and other forms of birth control are basic health care for women. It is 2007 - any woman should be able to walk into any pharmacy, anywhere in the country, and get birth control, including emergency contraception, without discrimination or delay," said PPFA President Cecile Richards. Continue. Wal-Mart Takes Step to End Discriminatory Policy; Will Now Include Birth Control in Insurance PlanAs nation's largest retailer acquiesces to public pressure, 24 states still do not require this coverageNews release, NARAL Pro-Choice America, January 22, 2007, via Common Dreams WASHINGTON - January 22 - Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called Wal-Mart's decision to include birth control in its basic health insurance coverage plan for the first time a step forward for women's health and reproductive freedom. Continue. Contra-ContraceptionBy Russell Shorto, New York Times Magazine, May 7, 2006 This important report provides a detailed account of how, as it has gathered force, the religious right has been quietly moving against contraception -- in many cases with the explicit goal of limiting sex to procreation within marriage. At the moment, the fight appears focused on the emergency contraceptive, Plan B. But, according to the article, some "pro-life" activists are also taking aim at condoms, IUDs and oral contraceptives. Click here for the report The Movement Against Health InsuranceBenefit Mandates: Assessing the DangersBy Adam Sonfield, Guttmacher Policy Review, Spring 2006 America is facing a problem of ever-rising health care costs, consuming an ever larger portion of families’ income and the gross domestic product. These costs have contributed to another problem, the growing number of uninsured Americans. With conservative policymakers setting the agenda in the White House and in Congress, their proposed solutions have taken center stage. At their core is a simple idea: If you give people access to less expensive insurance, more people will be able to afford coverage. There is, however, a hitch: Lower-cost insurance almost inevitably means less-comprehensive coverage. Indeed, one key way that conservatives hope to achieve lower-cost insurance is by rolling back policies that require health insurance plans to include coverage of specific services. Women’s health advocates worry that without these policies, widely known as benefit mandates, contraceptive and other reproductive health services may be restricted. Continue to the Policy Review, in PDF format New Federal Authority to Impose MedicaidFamily Planning Cuts: A Deal States Should RefuseBy Rachel Benson Gold, Guttmacher Policy Review, Spring 2006 The joint federal-state Medicaid program has long been of central importance to low-income women’s health care in general and to the provision of subsidized family planning services in particular. Since 1972, family planning has been one of a handful of services the federal government has required all state Medicaid programs to cover, and it is one of the very few services for which patient costsharing is prohibited. According to the most recent data available, nearly 12% of all women of reproductive age rely on Medicaid for their health care, and the program provides just over six in 10 public dollars spent on family planning across the country (see table). However, a recently enacted federal law giving states significant new latitude to reshape their Medicaid programs could change all that. For the first time in more than three decades, states have the authority to exclude family planning from the package of benefits offered to some groups of enrollees under the program. Click for the report, in PDF format. Fear Of The PillBy Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D NY), TomPaine.common sense, December 15, 2005 "In the face of an alarming movement across the country to prevent women from getting birth control, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has been repeatedly asked at press briefings if the president is opposed to contraception. In response, McClellan has been evasive, ambiguous and unable to give a straight answer." Click here to read Rep. Maloney's statement. For more information on the Bush administration's position on contraception, please click here. N.Y. Court Rejects Employers' Challenge to Contraception LawBy John Caher, New York Law Journal via Law.com, January 13, 2006 "By a 3-2 margin, the Appellate Division, 3rd Department, rejected myriad constitutional challenges by Catholic and Baptist organizations, and upheld the law requiring employers that provide prescription insurance coverage to their workers to cover contraceptives." Click here for the report. Important study links family planning, abortion rate
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Guttmacher Institute study shows how access to contraceptives affects abortion rate
Critics Suggest Guttmacher's Pro-Abortion Report Ignores Negative Evidence
Republican Senator Glenn Grothman, pictured here, wants to raise from 15 to 18 the eligible age of a reproductive health program that serves thousands of women so that girls 15-17 cannot get contraceptives without their parents knowledge. Grothman and his religious right supporters say the program encourages teens to become sexually active and raising the age would reestablish parental rights.
