WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s new health care law promises to bring affordable coverage to the 32 million people in the United States without health insurance. But a Planned Parenthood-backed campaign is hoping to funnel some of that funding toward a strictly female issue.
“Women spend, on average, about five years trying to get pregnant, but they spend about 30 years trying to avoid pregnancy and trying to prevent pregnancy,” said Laurie Rubiner, of Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood’s fear is that those women trying to avoid pregnancy don’t have the money to afford a monthly medication. According to polling conducted this summer by Planned Parenthood, 34 percent of women say at some point, the cost of birth control made it difficult to use it consistently. More than half of young women 18 to 34 report difficulty paying for contraception.
“When you start talking 30, 40, 50 dollars a month and people are on a tight budget, that can be a considerable impact and they have to choose between contraception and food or other necessities,” said Hal Lawrence of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a co-sponsor of the Birth Control Matters campaign.
The campaign aims to see contraception added to the preventive measures portion of the new health care law, which would allow for co-pay free prescription birth control for all women.
“It’s a no-brainer because it’s something that you’re going to have to pay that young men don’t have to pay,” Rubiner said. “So to me, there’s no question in my mind that young women will rally around this.”
Some of that support has come from a surprising place. According to the same Planned Parenthood study, 77 percent of Catholic women said they support adding birth control to the health care law’s preventive measures. Rubiner said this data didn’t surprise her, even though these women identify with a church whose teachings are anti-birth control.
“The bishops may think one way, but the women that are sitting in their churches, they don’t agree with them,” Rubiner said. “And they are obviously in support of and using birth control. So there’s a real disconnect there.”
The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops’ official stance is decidedly against the Birth Control Matters campaign. “When contraception is called a preventive service, the question to ask is something of a common sense one, which is, preventing what health problem?” said Deirdre McQuade of the USCCB. “Pregnancy is a healthy sign of a healthy working reproductive system.”
McQuade gave two main reasons for the Catholic poll numbers: One, just because someone identifies herself in a poll as “Catholic” doesn’t mean she goes to church regularly or follows Catholic teachings. And two, Catholic women might support the measure for those who use birth control and can’t afford it without realizing the measure would affect all health plans, including their own.
“What the question doesn’t draw attention to,” McQuade said, “kind of the unspoken part, is that it would require everybody, every taxpayer, to pay for that coverage, without unfortunately any kind of conscientious opt-out.”
McQuade also pointed out that co-pay free still means it’s being paid for somewhere, “just the same as there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
But Lawrence, of Birth Control Matters, said one must look beyond the initial contraception costs to the costs associated with complicated pregnancies and premature births, which are higher in unintended pregnancies. “Not just the dollars spent during the pregnancy or in the hospital at the time of the delivery or in the nursery,” Lawrence said, “but sadly, babies who are born significantly premature have lifelong issues. So that cost just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”
For now, those on both sides of the campaign are waiting on a medical panel that will give Congress suggestions as to what should and should not be covered under the health care law’s preventive measures. But a decision is not expected for at least another year.
Experts speak out
Health care professionals on the Birth Control Matters campaign. Lauren Timm/MEDILL