Emergency contraception — which is just one more form of birth control — is in the headlines this week, with the Obama Administration’s decision to expand access by making it available over the counter, while at the same time still requiring that you must be 15 or older to buy it.
Tag: birth control
Men, Women, Contraception: Where is The Pill for Men?
Here’s a quick quiz, courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: What are the two most commonly used forms of birth control in the United States?If your reply includes “condoms,” you’re wrong. Oral contraceptives are the top method, and tubal ligation comes in a close second. And they’re both used by women, not by men.
Who’s Going to Get Free Birth Control?
So you ring up your birth control prescription at the pharmacy this month and the clerk says “that will be $0.” Cha-ching. You can’t beat that price.But unfortunately the more common scenario is that the clerk asks for the $10, $20, or $35 co-pay they’ve asked for every month. What happened to the “free preventive care services,” including contraception, that were promised under the Affordable Care Act, anyway?
Women Who Took Faulty ‘Pill’ Urged to Use Backup Contraception
Women who may have taken birth control pills from faulty packs should use a backup form of contraception for the time being, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada suggested Wednesday.
Judge Orders Morning-After Pill Available Without Prescription
A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, has ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make the morning-after birth control pill available to people of any age without a prescription.
Changes in health-care laws and a new device may increase the appeal of the IUD
Even though they’re more effective at preventing pregnancy than most other forms of contraception, long-acting birth-control methods such as intrauterine devices and hormonal implants have been a tough sell for women, especially younger ones. But changes in health-care laws and the introduction of the first new IUD in 12 years may make these methods more attractive. Increased interest in the devices could benefit younger women because of their high rates of unintended pregnancy, according to experts in women’s reproductive health.
Even though they’re more effective at preventing pregnancy than most other forms of contraception, long-acting birth-control methods such as intrauterine devices and hormonal implants have been a tough sell for women, especially younger ones. But changes in health-care laws and the introduction of the first new IUD in 12 years may make these methods more attractive. Increased interest in the devices could benefit younger women because of their high rates of unintended pregnancy, according to experts in women’s reproductive health. Read full article.
Courts split on contraception, cases plow forward
The cases brought against the Obama administration’s employer contraception coverage rule are largely marching forward, despite the White House’s recent attempt at compromise, the American Civil Liberties Union noted in an update Thursday.
Brigitte Amiri, an attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told reporters more than 40 cases have been filed against the rule from for-profit and nonprofit groups that oppose having to pay for contraception on moral grounds. Some cases are traveling up to the appellate courts, where, she said, five decisions regarding temporary relief from the rule have been made so far. Three circuit courts have denied temporary relief to plaintiffs, and two have granted it.
When the administration rolls out its final rule regarding nonprofit organizations, more cases brought by the groups could be dismissed as they would be exempt from the coverage requirement.
The ACLU has filed amicus briefs in many cases in support of the contraception rule and the government. Read full article.
With sex ed, contraception–and Plan B–NYC teen pregnancy rate drops
The teen pregnancy rate among New York City’s public high school students dropped 27% over a decade, new city data shows. Among 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, 73 became pregnant in 2010. That’s down from 99 of 1,000 girls who became pregnant in 2001.
“We’re seeing that there are two things happening: teens are both delaying sex, and those that are having sex are more likely to use contraceptives,” Deborah Kaplan, assistant commissioner of the New York City Department of Health’s Bureau of Maternal, Infant and Reproductive Health, told MSNBC.com. “Our efforts to make sex education and birth control more widely available in public high schools are working.”
According to the health department’s numbers, she’s right. From 2001 to 2011, there was a 12-point drop in the proportion of public high school students who have ever had sex: 51% to 39%. And from just 2009 to 2011, the proportion of sexually active female students who used hormonal contraception (Plan B included) or long-acting reversible contraception (such as an IUD) the last time they had intercourse increased from 17 to nearly 27%. Read full article.
Birth Control Rule Altered to Allay Religious Objections
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday proposed yet another compromise to address strenuous objections from religious organizations about a policy requiring health insurance plans to provide free contraceptives, but the change did not end the political furor or legal fight over the issue.
The proposal could expand the number of groups that do not need to pay directly for birth control coverage, encompassing not only churches and other religious organizations, but also some religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service agencies. Health insurance companies would pay for the coverage.
The latest proposed change is the third in the last 15 months, all announced on Fridays, as President Obama has struggled to balance women’s rights, health care and religious liberty. Legal experts said the fight could end up in the Supreme Court. Read full article.
Abusive partners can sabotage contraception
While researchers don’t know exactly how common it is, the nation’s leading group of obstetricians and gynecologists says women should be screened for ‘reproductive coercion.’
When a husband hides a wife’s birth control pills or a boyfriend takes off a condom in the middle of sex in hopes of getting an unwilling girlfriend pregnant, that’s a form of abuse called reproductive coercion.
While researchers don’t know exactly how common such coercion is, it’s common enough – especially among women who are abused by their partners in other ways – that health care providers should screen women for signs at regular check-ups and pregnancy visits, says the nation’s leading group of obstetricians and gynecologists.
“We want to make sure that health care providers are aware that this is something that does go on and that it’s a form of abuse,” says Veronica Gillispie, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Ochsner Health System, New Orleans, and a member of the committee that wrote the opinion for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. It’s published in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, out today. Read full article.