“Contact Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius TODAY to Urge BIRTH CONTROL AS NO-COPAY PREVENTIVE CARE FOR ALL WOMEN

BACKGROUND
As part of the Affordable Care Act, new health insurance plans are required to cover women’s preventive health care services with no co-pays to their members. The Women’s Health Amendment was included in the final legislation as a way to address gaps in women’s health care, and the law leaves it to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to define what specific preventive benefits will be covered. HHS  released its decision on August 1, 2011 regarding what additional benefits will be covered, and, thanks in part to the advocacy of pro-women groups like Citizens for Choice, included birth control. 

ACTION NEEDED:
Women need your help to ensure that the final ruling by HHS expands insurance coverage for birth control for all women.  For 60 days (until Oct. 3, 2011), HHS is accepting public comments on their ruling, as well as on a proposal that would allow some religious employers to deny women access to this vital health care service. Can you take just a moment to post a comment?   Follow this (Planned Parenthood) link to tell them your concerns.

SAMPLE COMMENT: 
I support Birth Control with no co-pays for all women.  This will reduce the number of unintended and mistimed pregnancies and help keep women and children healthy.  I support the decision to make birth control available to millions of women with no co-pays under the Affordable Care Act regulations.

However, I am concerned that certain employers may be exempted from the contraceptive coverage requirement.  Using birth control is an individual decision and, in fact, an individual Constitutional right.  I cannot support a proposal that would compromise women’s health and rights by allowing insitutions to deny employees insurance coverage for contraceptives.  Birth control is basic preventive health care that should be available to all women who want or need it, regardless of their employers or insurers. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In making its decision on preventive services for women, HHS adopted the recommendations of The Institute of Medicine, an independent organization commissioned to develop recommendations for healthcare.  The Institute issued its report naming eight specific services that support women's optimal health and well being:

• contraceptive methods and counseling to prevent unintended pregnancies
  
• screening for gestational diabetes
  
• HPV testing as part of cervical cancer screening for women over 30
  
• counseling on sexually transmitted infections
  
• counseling and screening for HIV
  
• lactation counseling and equipment to promote breast-feeding
  
• screening and counseling to detect and prevent interpersonal and domestic violence
  
• yearly well-woman preventive care visits to obtain recommended preventive services
  

HOUSE AND SENATE STANDS ON CHOICE
The stands on choice now for the House and Senate:

• The House of Representatives
  Before the electrion: 181 pro-choice members, 48 mixed-choice and 204 anti-choice (47%).
  After the election: 154 pro-choice, 33 mixed, 248 anti-choice (57%).
• The Senate
  Before the election:  41 pro-choice, 19 mixed, 40 anti-choice.
  After the election::  40 pro-choice, 14 mixed, 46 anti-choice

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Study Projects 30 Million Women Will Benefit from Health Reform Law Over Next 10 Years
Thirty million women will benefit from the new health care reform law, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, over the next 10 years, either through new or improved health insurance coverage, according to a report from The Commonwealth Fund released on July 30, 2010 (Realizing Health Reform's Potential: Women and the Affordable Care Act of 2010)  http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Issue-Briefs/2010/Jul/Realizing-Health-Reforms-Potential.aspx.
Up to 15 million women who now are uninsured could gain subsidized coverage under the law. In addition, 14.5 million insured women will benefit from provisions that improve coverage or reduce premiums.
Provisions will:

• expand eligibility for Medicaid
• provide subsidies to purchase insurance
• limit out-of-pocket spending
• prevent insurers from charging higher premiums or denying coverage based on health status or gender
• require new plans to cover maternity and newborn care.

Health care as it currently exists leaves women more vulnerable to costs related to loss of health insurance. “Because insurance carriers consider women, particularly those of reproductive age, higher risk than men, women report greater difficulties gaining coverage … than men of the same age,” the report stated.  While women will have to wait until 2014 to see the biggest benefits from the law in terms of expanded coverage, numerous provisions began in 2010, according to the report.

Comprehensive Sex Ed: What every teen has a right to know
Our community schools lack a comprehensive sex education curriculum. Nevada Union High is a specific example. California Education Code mandates that sex education be comprehensive and age appropriate.  All factual information must be medically accurate and objective. Further, it must not teach or promote religion, or reflect or promote bias based on gender or sexual orientation.    Special requirements apply to sex education for grades 7 – 12, including that it teach:  (1) that abstinence from sexual intercourse is the only certain way to prevent unintended pregnancy and abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases; (2) about the effectiveness and safety (not just failure rates) of all FDA-approved contraceptive methods, including emergency contraception; and (3) about sexually transmitted diseases, including modes of transmission, all FDA-approved methods of prevention, and local resources for treatment and diagnosis.  Laurie Weaver, head of California’s public health department's Office of Family Planning, describes the state's sex education curriculum as an "abstinence-plus" strategy.  While the curriculum is largely based on the premise that abstinence is the only 100% effective way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, the curriculum also needs to stress to teens that if they choose to be sexually active, they need to be fully informed about contraceptives and how to access services.

Public opinion, as well as state law, favors comprehensive sex education over the abstinence-only approach. Polls show that more than 80 percent of Americans support teaching comprehensive sex education in high schools and in middle or junior high schools. Most importantly, comprehensive sex education programs have proven to be effective at providing teens with the tools they need to protect themselves from negative sexual health outcomes. There is little evidence that abstinence-only instruction has been effective. According to facts gathered by Advocates for Youth, “No abstinence-only program has yet been proven through rigorous evaluation to help youth delay sex for a significant period of time, help youth decrease their number of sex partners, or reduce STI or pregnancy rates among teens.”
We have not given up in our endeavors to bring an effective, comprehensive sex education curriculum to Nevada County schools. This issue is too important to ignore!
Sex education advocates like ACLU of Northern California and Planned Parenthood have been working to ensure that school districts around California comply with the law requiring that sex ed taught in public schools be comprehensive. Still many districts are using ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.  Read an informative article published RH Reality Check about the remaining challenges and how they are being addressed at RH Reality Check.  Go to   http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/06/02/californias-education-program-incomplete-success-story.

For a California state profile by SIECUS on CSE laws, statistics on sexual health, teen births, who's received abstinence-only until marriage money, groups who are pro-CSE and those that oppose it, read this report.
ACT up!
Become a pro-choice activist by signing up to join our Activists for Choice Team (ACT). You'll receive periodic action alerts about current legislative and public policy issues affecting reproductive choice.
Simply email us your email address. Our Public Policy committee has been working hard to advocate for comprehensive reproductive health care and access. Read about their latest efforts in our quarterly newsletter, Voices for Choice.

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The Clinic! has mammogram referrals, and they could be free or low-cost!

Info on mammograms.

Teens, visit Coalition for Positive Sexuality. Visit our links page for the description.

Read the review for Carole Joffe's book, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars.

Fake clinics, or "crisis pregnancy centers" give you one choice - theirs. NARAL has just completed a two-year study on CPCs, Unmasking Fake Clinics. You really need to read this.

Read about our local CPC

Comprehensive Sex Education California law says it's mandatory that schools teach HIV/AIDS classes twice and if they choose to teach sex education, it must be comprehensive and must follow the guidelines in the California Education Code. How is Nevada County holding up to this legal requirement?

.Are you pregnant and need a ride to your counseling or abortion appointment? ACCESS Women's Health Justice can help!

Questions about HPV (human papillomavirus)? This Nantional Cancer Institute Fact Sheet is a good source!

Abstinence-only education still doesn't work.