‘Great Suspicion’: Is Planned Parenthood Leading Push for Free ObamaCare Birth Control?
- Posted on November 1, 2010 at 6:51am by
Scott Baker
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may be on the horizon: free contraception for women in the U.S., thanks to the new health care law.
That could start a shift toward more reliable — and expensive — forms of birth control that are gaining acceptance in other developed countries.
But first, look for a fight over social mores.
A panel of experts advising the government meets in November to begin considering what kind of preventive care for women should be covered at no cost to the patient, as required under President Barack Obama’s overhaul.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., author of the women’s health amendment, says the clear intent was to include family planning.
But is birth control preventive medicine?
Conflicting answers frame what could be the next clash over moral values and a health law that passed only after a difficult compromise restricting the use of public money for abortions.
For many medical and public health experts, there’s no debate.
“There is clear and incontrovertible evidence that family planning saves lives and improves health,” said obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. David Grimes, an international family planning expert who teaches medicine at the University of North Carolina. “Contraception rivals immunization in dollars saved for every dollar invested. Spacing out children allows for optimal pregnancies and optimal child rearing. Contraception is a prototype of preventive medicine.”
But U.S. Catholic bishops say pregnancy is a healthy condition, not an illness. In comments filed with the Department of Health and Human Services, the bishops say they oppose any requirement to cover contraceptives or sterilization as preventive care.
“We don’t consider it to be health care, but a lifestyle choice,” said John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, a Philadelphia think tank whose work reflects church teachings. “We think there are other ways to avoid having children than by ingesting chemicals paid for by health insurance.”
So far, most other religious conservatives have stayed out of the debate, though that could change. Some say they are concerned about any requirement that might include the morning-after pill. The Food and Drug Administration classifies it as birth control; some religious conservatives see it as an abortion drug.
Jeanne Monahan, a health policy expert at the conservative Family Research Council, said her group would oppose any mandate that lacks a conscience exemption for moral and religious reasons. She said there’s “great suspicion” that a major abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, is leading the push for free birth control.
As recently as the 1990s, many health insurance plans didn’t even cover birth control. Protests, court cases, and new state laws led to dramatic changes. Today, almost all plans now cover prescription contraceptives. So does Medicaid, the health care program for low-income people.
The use of birth control is “virtually universal” in the U.S., according to a government report this summer from the National Center for Health Statistics. Nearly 93 million prescriptions for contraceptives were dispensed in 2009, according to IMS Health, a market analysis firm. Generic versions of the pill are available at Walmart stores, for example, for $9 a month.
Still, about half of all pregnancies are unplanned, and many occur among women using some form of contraception. The government says the problem is rarely the birth control method, but “inconsistent or incorrect use,” such as forgetting to take a pill.
Advocates say free birth control would begin to address the problem.
“We can look at other countries where birth control is available for no cost, and what we see are lower pregnancy rates, lower abortion rates and lower teen pregnancy,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood.
It would remove a cost barrier that may be keeping women away from more reliable long-acting birth control, and also affects those who don’t do well on inexpensive generics.
A major research study now taking place in St. Louis provides a glimpse of how things might change.
The Contraceptive CHOICE Project is providing free birth control to as many as 10,000 women, tracking their decisions and the results. About 70 percent have chosen long-acting contraceptives such as IUDs (intrauterine devices) or implants, which are reversible and have a much lower failure rate than pills or condoms. The proportion of U.S. women using such methods remains low; part of the reason seems to be higher upfront cost.
“The shift we need to see in the United States is a shift away from methods like the pill and condoms to the most effective methods, like implants and IUDs,” said Dr. Jeffrey Peipert, a principal investigator on the study. “And we’ll only see that shift if somebody is willing to pay for it.”
How the Obama administration will apply the law remains to be seen. It could allow insurance plans wide discretion on meeting the coverage requirement. A panel convened by the Institute of Medicine will hold its first meeting Nov. 16 to begin work on recommendations to HHS. The department has until next August to make its decision.
____
Online:
Institute of Medicine: http://tinyurl.com/2fqa3yc
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: http://www.nccbuscc.org/
U.S. government health care site: http://www.healthcare.gov/
National Catholic Bioethics Center: http://www.ncbcenter.org
Dr. David Grimes: http://davidagrimes.com/
Mikulski amendment: http://tinyurl.com/25ph2rn
Family Research Council: http://www.frc.org/
Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/
National Center for Health Statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/
Contraceptive CHOICE Project: http://www.choiceproject.wustl.edu/
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Comments (50)
justice
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 7:36pmgoverment stay the hell out of our lifes. there are so many couples willing to adopt so badly. you people are ignorant to the fact that we are on to you and we cetainly are not idiots…
Report Post »trukmek
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 4:00pmJust like population control in China.
Report Post »TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 3:30pmPlanned Parenthood = Mass Murderers
Report Post »Surfndestiny
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 1:49pmNoooooo….. Say it isn`t so……………..
The eugenics crowd now a public institution………………..
Where in history has that occurred before?………………
Report Post »wash1776
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 12:45pmNone of this stuff is FREE. It goes on the back of the American taxpayer of which is dwindling in numbers because of all the government giveaways and job-killing that they are doing.
Report Post »betterthantv
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 11:47amOf all that’s going on today, this is hardly a topic that interest me. Only thing I can offer is we don’t deserve ANYTHING for free. But on the flip side, wouldn’t free birth control be better and more cost effective than say……the child tax credit? Which encourages young mothers to have bastard babies on the taxpayers dime and then she gets a check for 18 years after that! There’s no way for either side to win this argument.
Report Post »OBAMAWORSHIOER
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 11:33amPlanned Parenthood for years has received govt largess so they would likely be leaders in free abortions.
Report Post »kindling
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 10:58amThe prevention of conseption is birth control…….abortion is murder!
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 10:58amPlanned Parenthood for YEARS has pushed abortions. THEY MAKE MONEY. They do NOT always council on adoption or any other option, even if they say they do. They have been taped many times by undercover girls. They give out birth control pills to very young girls without a medical exam and they do not notify parents about medical procedures on girls as young as 13! NOT ONE cent of our tax dollars should go to this PRO ABORTION group. Go look at their annual budgets! Outrageous.
Report Post »clhathaway
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 10:38amIf people aren‘t born they can’t get sick. That’s your preventative medicine. But if they aren‘t born they also won’t get jobs and support the economy. The good news is that this kind of “planning” will allow us stupid breeders to take over in a generation.
Irony. Gotta love it.
Report Post »clhathaway
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 9:53amIf people aren‘t born they can’t get sick. There’s your preventative medicine. Of course, if they aren‘t born they can’t get jobs and help support the economy and the older retiring generation. The good thing is that such family planning will allow the “stupid breeders” to take over.
Irony. It’s a bitch.
Report Post »ccmill
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 9:49amPlease clarify. Are you folks saying that the only women who should have sex are those who are ready, willing and able, physically, emotionally and financially to go through a pregnancy, give birth and either raise a child or give it up for adoption?
Report Post »jds7171
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 11:24amThey can have sex if they are not ready to have a child. Tax payers should not be paying for a girl who can’t keep her legs crossed. I can’t believe you lefties like to consider everything is a right. The right to have broadband internet. Next you guys will be promising a yatcht for every american. When will it end?
Report Post »ChrisBalsz
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 2:30pm“Are you folks saying that the only women who should have sex are those who are ready, willing and able, physically, emotionally and financially to go through a pregnancy, give birth and either raise a child or give it up for adoption?”
Well I think that’s a separate issue, not a clarification of the argument against paying one dime in taxes to help people fornicate.
Generally I’d say “yes” though, since being merely “unwilling” to accept a responsibility is totally different from being incapable of it. And “unready” is just excusing being “unwilling”. I’m not “ready” to pay my higher taxes!
Report Post »benrush
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 9:25amAs to the argument that money and lives are saved by abortion, what an Orwellian comment.
It depends on your economic worldview. If every human life is translated into dollar values, it depends upon who is doing the translating.
Report Post »Buttercup
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:57amJohn Haas is speaking about Natural Family Planning, of course, which requires self-control and the willingness of both partners to wait until the woman’s fertile period is past. That would never do — no intercourse “on demand,” would it? Just as abstinence “doesn’t work” either. Why did it work BTP (before the Pill), but doesn’t work now? Like, why were there just 5 STD’s BTP, but over 50 now? Does no one see a connection between the proliferation of STD’s and infertility? Or the fact that contraceptives block the natural biochemical mechanism that causes people to be attracted to another who is compatible with them. We’ve got to stop playing God with our technology.
Report Post »moonpeace
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:53amGovernment
‘Great Suspicion’: Is Planned Parenthood Leading Push for Free ObamaCare Birth Control?
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 6:51am by Scott Baker Print » Email » WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may be on the horizon: free contraception for women in the U.S., thanks to the new health care law.
That could start a shift toward more reliable — and expensive — forms of birth control that are gaining acceptance in other developed countries.
But first, look for a fight over social mores.
A panel of experts advising the government meets in November to begin considering what kind of preventive care for women should be covered at no cost to the patient, as required under President Barack Obama’s overhaul.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., author of the women’s health amendment, says the clear intent was to include family planning.
But is birth control preventive medicine?
Conflicting answers frame what could be the next clash over moral values and a health law that passed only after a difficult compromise restricting the use of public money for abortions.
This article says. ‘For many medical and public health experts, there’s no debate.’
Report Post »“There is clear and incontrovertible evidence that family planning saves lives and improves health,” said obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. David Grimes, an international family planning expert who teaches medicine at the University of North Carolina.
SAVES LIVES? Abortion saves lives?
teedub
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 2:41pmThe article is talking about covering birth control for all women, not abortion. The Hyde Amendment already prevents the govt from covering abortions and has for 30 years. The article doesn’t say that abortion saves lives, it says family planning improves health and saves lives. Birth Control =/= abortion.
Report Post »PalinPower
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:46amPlanned Parenthood is for eugenics and getting as many women sterilized as possible. Women need to be warned of the dangers of tubal ligation a.k.a. sterilization which include: enormous ovarian cysts that will need to be surgically removed (larger than four inches), extremely heavy bleeding every month along with sharp side pains and painful cramps, a five times higher chance than non-sterilized women of being told they need a hysterectomy and/or oophorectomy within 7-10 years of being sterilized, blood supply to the ovaries being cut off which can cause premature ovarian failure/ovarian death that results in early menopause before the age of 40. Go to the HERS Foundation website to learn more of the dangers of tubal ligation, hysterectomy, oophorectomy and other barbaric surgeries that are being done to women and destroying their bodies as well as causing a lifetime of emotional damage, this abomination MUST STOP!!!! http://www.hersfoundation.com
Report Post »Akwoman
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 2:02pmI had to sign up so that I could reply to this….What a crock of B.S.
Report Post »I have worked in health care my whole life (30 years) most of it in surgery, have helped
with many GYN procedures, a lot of them tubal ligations. A tubal ligation done properly does
not interfere with the ovarian artery. All those problems listed happen naturally in women who
never had tubal ligations.
If you aren‘t going to use you’re uterus to grow children ….. get rid of it….it’s one less place to grow
tumors or cancer. Sex was good before I had mine removed at 28 and was just as good after if
not better.
I went to the hersfoundation website and read the complications due to hysterectomies with or with
ovary removal and if it were true hysterectomies would be illegal.
dantom
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:30amPut those dems in office and we will follow Chavez.
Report Post »bikerr
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:24amPlanned Parenthood:is neither planned or Parenthood
Report Post »Lydia
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:18amThe truth is that as long as money is an issue, eventually it‘s inevitable that today’s “free birth control” will become tomorrow’s “mandatory birth control and/or termination/sterilization” as society won’t be able to afford to keep caring for more people financially. Likewise, society will eventually tire of shouldering the “burden” of keeping disabled and elderly alive and begin by offering, then mandating suicide.
When we change the way money works, it is put back in its place as a tool to serve us rather than a master we must serve. (More information at http://WWW.NOPOM.INFO)
Report Post »Promotefreedom
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 10:32amYes. This is part of the Progressive’s agenda. Get a foot in the door to enable future implementation of their whole intended plan. Eugenics.
Report Post »Rita
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:15amWhen is Obamacare going to provide free tubal ligations for women?
Report Post »felina g
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 9:12amHow about castrating all the men ??? Will they vote for that ?
Report Post »BoilitDown
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 9:41amRita:…Tubal ligations don’t have the dehumanizing impact that abortions carry, so I doubt they’ll go for it. You see, humans are bad and evil and must be destroyed and, they need a fetus to complete the ritual.
Report Post »As for Felina G’s comment about castration, with body mutilation being so popular these days, it might become all the rage.
The solution for all of this, of course, is for science to develop a means to remove the “liberal gene mutation” with which the world is plagued.
truth4at
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:07amNext they’ll be telling us that we have to be on the pill (or others) for a certain amount of time…Oh then then how many kids you can have. Come on!!! Look at Mrs. Duggar…she’s raising 19kids and doing great! God is the one who decides when a women gets pregnant or not.
Report Post »Perpetua
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:04amduh…
and who exactly didn’t see this coming?
They have been preparing for and arguing this for years but I guess only those in the prolife movement have been paying attention…you know, us extremists who are a threat to the country…
birth control today = abortifacients
For those who don’t know, abortifacients are chemical and other means of causing abortions, without directly intending/causing abortions… that is, morning after pill, IUDs, the pill, etc…things that cause the fertilized egg not to implant or not to stay implanted or be unable to live once implanted in the wall of the uterus…
it’s so much “nicer” that way…no baby parts to see and count and put back together…
wake up america…before we are worse than history’s worst killers…
oh wait, at 1 billion abortions worldwide PER YEAR, we probably far excede Stalin, Mao, Hitler, etc.
God have mercy…
Report Post »AstupidAmerican
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 7:59amYou Vil Take Z Pill young lady…
Report Post »DrPepper
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 7:52amWell they see pregnancy as a form of sickness that you can cure or ride it out. Quite simply in their minds babies in the womb aren’t human beings yet they are a part of the mother not a separate human. You see if you have a wart it’s your wart because it is on your body for example so you can do with said wart what you please that’s the twisted argument.
So of course planned parenthood is pushing this agenda as well as this administration. Now the question is where will these wonderful pregnancy disease clinics be? I would argue right smack in the middle of the urban communities because you see that disease is running rampant in those areas. They need to get as much vaccine in these areas as possible to combat this dreaded pregnancy disease a disease that’s ruining the lives of these women.
Maybe one day when science permits they can begin sterilizing little girls so they won’t have to go through this horrible disease of pregnancy. I assume the mother would have the option to have that done to their daughters to protect them in the future. Heck if you have the right amount of money and if its still ….soooo cool to do so just head over to some third world country and adopt a brand new shinny baby. That way the woman won’t have the awful scars of the dreaded disease and 9 month stripped for her precious life so she can continue to do the things that causes the disease in the first place.
Ummm a little rant there sorry.
Report Post »truth4at
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:08amA very good rant though ;)
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:18amSome rants are good.
Report Post »BoilitDown
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 9:24amDrPepper:
Report Post »You have enhanced my perspective. I have not seen the argument against abortion presented in quite this way. Thank you.
MJ1025
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 7:37amStop it already! Government needs to get the heck out of our lives. My God! They are treating us like we are farm animals. They are conditioning people to depend on the gov’t for everything.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:20amAgreed, we do not need the government in our lives past the barest needed. This debate on the part of Pro-choice (birth control) or Pro-Life should be decided by the people in each state. Mind you my personal views are slanted based on a strong christian stance, and that is where I will let the matter stand.
Report Post »Journalist Stunt Double
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 8:38amWhile we’re on the subject…can Glenn please stop using Bill Gates as the model capitalist/philanthropist please?!
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the largest donors to Planned Parenthood.
Bill Gates’ father, William H. Gates, served on the board of Planned Parenthood as president for many years.
Bill Gates openly “gaffes” that vaccines are a great way to control the growth of population. It’s no wonder the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations largest project is vaccine distribution to third world countries.
Bill Gates funds geoengineering projects to whiten clouds to curb greenhouse gasses. The Silver Lining Project.
And that’s not even getting into the discussion of how Gates controversially “borrowed patented technology” to start Microsoft from his wealthy parents’ garage. Not exactly the most truthful and honorable, bootstrapping, red-blooded American capitalistic/entrepreneurial start.
Report Post »Thoughtful One
Posted on November 1, 2010 at 9:46pmDisregarding the fact that it is ridiculous to even consider making taxpayers pay for birth control, let’s stop and think about this for a moment. Consider some recent progressive comments, such as recommending the addition of sterilants to the drinking water; wishing for the ability to come back as a disease to control the population; recommending that people be made to “justify their existence” with only those deemed to be contributors to society being allowed to survive; abortion represents good mothering; smothering a disabled baby is a loving act… How slippery is the slope from “free birth control” to “mandatory birth control”? Remember…government money is always about control and ALWAYS comes with strings attached.
Report Post »Robert W
Posted on November 2, 2010 at 1:03amPlanned parenthood targets minority neighborhoods. Margaret Sanger was a racist who embraced eugenics. Yet theres silence from so called “Black leaders”.
Report Post »ru12
Posted on November 2, 2010 at 6:12amThe government doesn’t have to involve themselves in this….I was getting free birth control pills from Planned Parenthood in the mid sixties when I was 15, and without parental knowledge.I assume you still can….or is PP totally funded by taxpayers now? Just because you can get free contraceptives doesn’t mean you will. But I’d rather pay taxes for pills than abortions, given these choices.
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