POLICY UPDATES
Supreme Court Upholds Rules That Allow Employers to Choose Not to Cover Birth Control
The July 8 Supreme Court Decision in Trump v. Pennsylvania upheld two rules that would allow virtually any employer or university to refuse to provide birth control coverage for their employees or students. As a result, many people are now at risk of losing the birth control coverage that is fundamental to their economic security, health, and equality. For more on the impact of this decision and the need for this amendment, please see Power to Decide's statement.
In response to the ruling, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have introduced the Protect Access to Birth Control Act, which would block harmful birth control rules, ensuring that the decision about whether to use birth control and which method to use is made between a patient, their health care provider, and no one else. Tell your members of Congress to support the bill and protect coverage and access to birth control through our easy, online action form.
House Passes Spending Bill That Funds and Protects Key Programs
On July 31, the House passed a package of spending bills to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2021, which begins on October 1, 2020. The bills provided level funding to key programs including the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program and the Title X Family Planning Program. Just as importantly, the bill included language to protect the integrity of both the TPP and Title X programs, as well as language that specifically blocks the domestic gag rule and begins to undo its damage. The bill also includes a measure that blocks the Administration’s birth control rules that allow employers to choose not to cover birth control. Unfortunately, the bill still includes the Hyde Amendment, a restriction that prevents those with lower incomes that depend on Medicaid from having coverage for abortion care.
While the House bill is an important market, it is unlikely to become law in its current form as the Senate has not yet taken any action on spending bills. Congress will therefore need to pass a stop-gap spending measure—typically a continuing resolution or “CR” for short—to fund the federal government beyond September 30. For more on the latest state of play, see our Federal Policy Action Center.
Updates to our Advancing Contraceptive Access Toolkit
In May, Power to Decide launched a toolkit designed to help elected officials, public health officials, and advocates in their efforts to enact key state-level policies to improve access to contraception. The toolkit focuses on three policies: insurance coverage for an extended supply of contraception, pharmacist prescribing of contraception, and protecting contraceptive coverage in health insurance. If you missed the June 29 webinar hosted in partnership with the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs and the R Street Institute that walked through the resources and how different audiences can use them, you can still view the recording. The latest additions to the toolkit include an infographic on pharmacist prescribing of birth control, as well as state contraceptive landscape fact sheets for Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
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