USA – Low-income women’s access to contraception is under attack

Low-income women’s access to contraception is under attack

By Kathleen Sebelius
October 23, 2018

Congressional candidates have deluged voters in recent weeks with debates about the Trump administration’s efforts to peel away protections for Americans with pre existing health conditions. Yet there is another, equally insidious effort from the administration that could undermine access to health care, and Americans have no idea it is happening: a proposal to drastically reduce information on and access to contraception.

Decades of health data make it clear that helping young women avoid unwanted pregnancies can be a critical factor in their success in life. With freedom from an unexpected pregnancy, they can finish school, pursue a career and better prepare for parenting.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/low-income-womens-access-to-contraception-is-under-attack/2018/10/23/f9e696f4-d2e0-11e8-a275-81c671a50422_story.html

USA: Abortion is down — so the GOP’s coming for your birth control

Abortion is down — so the GOP’s coming for your birth control
Lower abortion rates suggest women are getting better at preventing pregnancy. So the right is trying to stop them

Amanda Marcotte
Oct 22, 2017

The abortion rate has fallen yet again, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, dropping by 25 percent from 2008 to 2014. Thanks, Obama! Or really, thanks to the widespread use of contraception, which researchers Rachel Jones and Jenna Jerman of the Guttmacher Institute argue is the largest single factor in the drop in the abortion rate. And in fairness, the Obama administration did significant work to expand contraception access through the Affordable Care Act.

Fewer abortions is what Republicans and conservatives claim they want, which is why they are constantly passing arcane restrictions on abortion access. So why is the Trump administration ramping up the war on contraception? A leaked White House budget memo, published Thursday by Brian Beutler of Crooked Media, exposed the far-reaching anti-birth-control agenda of the Trump administration.

Continued at source: https://www.salon.com/2017/10/22/abortion-is-down-so-the-gops-coming-for-your-birth-control/

U.S.: How Trumpcare Will Hurt Women’s Health

How Trumpcare Will Hurt Women’s Health
Posted by Angela Liu on 06/14/2017

May was not a good month for women’s health care. On May 4, a Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which proposes to tighten existing regulations on contraceptive access and maternity care and to cut Planned Parenthood from the federal budget. On the same day, Trump signed a “religious liberty” executive order that allows organizations to limit their employees’ access to contraception and abortion based on the organization’s faith. Then, on May 23, the administration released its 2018 budget proposal, which Dawn Leguens, the vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called the “worst budget for women and women’s health in a generation.”

Continued at source: The F Bomb: http://thefbomb.org/2017/06/how-trumpcare-will-hurt-womens-health/

U.S.: Trump to Blow Up Obamacare’s Birth Control Benefit

Trump to Blow Up Obamacare’s Birth Control Benefit

May 31, 2017
Christine Grimaldi & Jessica Mason Pieklo

The draft interim final rule echoes Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s belief that “there’s not one” woman who can’t afford birth control.

Any business that provides employer-sponsored health insurance can soon claim a religious or moral objection to covering birth control, courtesy of the Trump administration.

That could leave more than 55 million cisgender women and an untold number of transgender and gender nonconforming people who rely on no-copay contraception under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) popular birth control benefit on the hook for the cost of the medication or a device—far beyond the cost of a co-pay.

Continued at source: Rewire: https://rewire.news/article/2017/05/31/trump-blow-up-obamacare-s-birth-control-benefit/