Senator Ron Johnson’s foot-in-mouth disease is nothing compared to what he wants to do to birth control. After voting to defund Planned Parenthood, Johnson talked about his ideas on women’s health — including his support for a bill that would leave some women without insurance coverage for birth control if their employer does’t want to provide it. This bill is a work-around that women’s health experts call “a giant step in the wrong direction.”
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has commended the senators behind the bill for recognizing that oral contraceptives are safe for over-the-counter use, but said the bill does little to increase access to them and would amount to a “giant step in the wrong direction.”
“The Affordable Care Act removed many barriers to preventive care that keeps women healthy. By making contraceptives available to women without a co-pay, it has truly increased access to contraception, thereby decreasing unintended pregnancies, and allowing women to better plan their futures. Unfortunately, instead of improving access, this bill would actually make more women have to pay for their birth control, and for some women, the cost would be prohibitive,” ACOG president Mark S. DeFrancesco said in a statement.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin presented the Senate proposal to defund its national organization as an unwarranted political attack, and said the bill Johnson supports doesn’t go far enough to expand access to birth control because it doesn’t expand the availability of IUDs and other methods and doesn’t ensure birth control sold over-the-counter is also covered by insurance.
“During his time in the Senate, Sen. Ron Johnson has continually voted against allowing women to access the health care they need — including his vote to defund Planned Parenthood on Monday,” said Nicole Safar, government relations director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin. “Opponents of women’s health use this OTC birth control bill as a means to muddy their otherwise terrible records and obscure their on-going attacks on women’s health.”
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Published: Aug 6, 2015