Tag: birth control

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Doctors And Women’s Groups Urge Feds To Relax Plan B Restrictions

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Dozens of medical, women’s health and reproductive health groups marked the first anniversary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ decision to maintain age restrictions on the sale of the morning-after birth control pill without a prescription by urging her to reconsider that decision.

“The unique dual-labeling of Plan B One Step has led to confusion among consumers and health care professionals alike, particularly regarding age restrictions and whether men and women can purchase non-prescription emergency contraception,” said a letter signed by more than three dozen women’s health, reproductive rights and individual providers of health care. Read full article.

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Federal District Court Judge Rules New York Archdiocese Challenge To Birth Control Benefit May Proceed

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A federal district court in New York denied the Obama administration’s request to dismiss a challenge to the contraception mandate filed by a group of Catholic organizations.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and two other Catholic entities challenged the law, arguing that providing their employees with a health insurance plan that makes contraception available without a co-pay violates their rights to free exercise of religion. The Obama administration argued the plaintiffs couldn’t challenge the insurance requirement at this time since the mandate, which doesn’t take effect until January 2014, isn’t causing the archdiocese any imminent injury. Furthermore, the administration argued, an additional compromise  and the administration to address concerns of religious organizations is in the works. Read full article.

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Most Americans support contraception insurance for all

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A new survey finds most Americans back a federal mandate that businesses and faith-based non-profits offer employees insurance coverage for contraception, even if it conflicts with their beliefs.

Most Americans support the Obama administration health reform mandate that requires business owners and faith-based non-profits to offer insurance coverage of contraception for employees, even when doing so conflicts with their religious principles, according to a recent survey by LifeWay Research.

Dozens of groups and business owners are fighting the mandate in court, claiming that the Health and Human Services’ Affordable Care Act requirement violates constitutional rights to religious freedom and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Read full article.

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Judge Sides with Christian Publisher on Contraceptive Coverage

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WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Friday temporarily prevented the Obama administration from forcing a Christian publishing company to provide its employees with certain contraceptives under the new health care law.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton granted a preliminary injunction sought by Tyndale House Publishers, which doesn’t want to provide employees with contraceptives that it equates with abortion.

At issue are contraceptives such as Plan B and IUDs. If a woman already is pregnant, the Plan B pill has no effect. It prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg, and according to the medical definition, pregnancy doesn’t begin until a fertilized egg implants itself into the wall of the uterus. The Plan B pill may also be able to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. IUDs mainly work by blocking sperm but may also have the same uterus effect. To Tyndale, these methods are not morally different than abortion. Read full article.

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Should Doctors Add a Birth Control Vital Sign?

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(Reuters Health) – An effort to develop a birth control “vital sign” measure gets doctors to document women’s use of contraception, but it doesn’t make them any more likely to include family planning counseling during visits, according to a new study.

The proposed “vital sign” consists of questions about contraception and pregnancy. “We were hoping that this would be a prompt for much more provision of counseling by clinicians and what we saw was it only minimally affected the type of counseling that women were given,” said Dr. Eleanor Schwarz, the lead author of the study and the director of the Women’s Health Services Research Unit at the University of Pittsburgh.

“We got better documentation (by doctors), but we can’t say that women were better informed,” she added.

Unlike blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs, use of birth control is not often addressed during doctor visits, Schwarz said, but it should be for women of childbearing age.

According to Schwarz’s study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, six percent of pregnancies are exposed to prescription medications that can cause a birth defect, because a large proportion of pregnancies are unplanned and birth control counseling rarely happens during physician visits. Read full article.

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UN Call Contraception Access a Universal Human Right

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Access to contraception is a universal human right that could dramatically improve the lives of women and children in poor countries, the United Nations announced Wednesday in a new report.

It is the first time the U.N. Population Fund’s annual report explicitly describes family planning as a human right.

“Family planning has a positive multiplier effect on development,” Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the fund, said in a written statement. “Not only does the ability for a couple to choose when and how many children to have help lift nations out of poverty, but it is also one of the most effective means of empowering women. Women who use contraception are generally healthier, better educated, more empowered in their households and communities and more economically productive. Women’s increased labor-force participation boosts nations’ economies.” Read full article.

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Birth Control Pills May Improve Women’s Cognitive Abilities Later In Life

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Beginning in the 1960s, the introduction of hormonal birth control pills introduced modern family planning to the world, preventing unwanted pregnancies and generally making the world a better place for everyone concerned. It turns out the pill may do even more than that, though. A new study shows that taking hormonal birth control before menopause may improve women’s cognitive function later in life, leaving them sharper and more mentally “with it” than peers who weren’t on the pill.

Published in the Journal of Women’s Health, the study of 261 women showed that women who had been on hormonal birth control scored better on  tests involving spatial reasoning and fast, flexible thinking. More than that though, the data suggests that the longer a woman was taking hormonal birth control, the more pronounced her improvements on the the tests were likely to be. Thus, the longer a woman is on birth control before menopause, the more mentally sharp she’s likely to be after it. Read full article.

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Stressed, depressed women terrible at using birth control

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SAN FRANCISCO – Depression and stress can cause lapses in proper use of contraception, a new study suggests.

In the study, women with moderate to severe depression and stress symptoms were less likely to use contraception consistently — that is, use it each time they had sex — compared to women with mild or no symptoms. Women with depression or stress were also more likely to say they did not use contraception at all in the past week compared to women with less severe symptoms.

The findings, presented here on Monday at the annual meeting of the America Public Health Association, are concerning because, although preventing unplanned pregnancies is important for all women, it may be especially important for women with mental health issues, said study researcher Kelli Stidham Hall. Read full article.

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New Contraceptive Methods Change Birth Control Patterns

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12:11AM EDT October 18. 2012 – The birth control pill and sterilization are still the most common forms of contraception, but new federal data released Thursday show that long-acting methods are gaining ground while condom use for birth control is declining.

The report from the National Center for Health Statistics is based on data from a national sample of 12,279 women ages 15-44 in 2006–2010 compared with a sample of 10,847 women those ages in 1995. Findings show that sterilization and the pill were used by either 27% or 28% of women in both sets of data, (28% in 1995 and 27% in 2006-10 for sterilization and 27% in 1995 and 28% in 2006-10 for the pill), but condoms as the most effective method of birth control declined from 20% to 16%. That decline was offset by a 75% increase in the use of other hormonal methods such as the patch or ring (from 4% to 7%) and a sevenfold increase (0.8% to 5.6%) in the intrauterine device (IUD). Such methods are among those deemed “long-acting” since they do not require daily or weekly attention. Read full article.

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Women With Learning Disabilities Left Out of Contraception Decisions – UK

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Women with learning disabilities are frequently left out of decisions concerning contraception, and often use contraceptives despite not being sexually active, show the results of a UK survey.

Just over a third of women included in the survey had been assessed under the UK Mental Capacity Act 2005 regarding contraception decisions, indicating that the Act’s strictures are not being implemented in full, say the researchers.

The findings also reveal that the most common form of contraception used in this population is the contraceptive implant, which must be reviewed regularly among women who may not be able to communicate their symptoms easily in the case of possible side effects, suggests the team. Read full article.