PPACA

Today, the Obama administration stood up for women's health and announced it would keep in place a proposed rule that ensures that new insurance plans include coverage of contraception.

The President seems unaware of the fact that Catholics who matter have disagreed with the Vatican’s current prohibition on contraception. Catholics, including institutions within the Catholic community, are free to follow their conscience on contraception. It is not up to the Obama administration to decide what action is more “Catholic" on the matter of contraception.

There is another 99 percent group in our country, distinct from but inextricably entwined with the now more familiar #99Percent. I refer to the 99 percent of American women who have ever had sexual intercourse and have used a birth control method at least some of the time.

God has apparently told members of Congress it is ok to wage war on women. Well, at least some Congressmen have decided this is the case.

There are those who assert that unintended pregnancy is not a health condition and therefore prevention of unintended pregnancy is not preventive health care. From my personal practice I can say that I cannot disagree more.

I firmly believe the requirements under the Affordable Care Act, and the slate of regulations being created to implement it, infringe on no one’s conscience, demand no one change her or his religious beliefs, discriminate against no man or woman, put no additional economic burden on the poor, interfere with no one’s medical decisions, compromise no one’s health -- that is, if you consider the law without refusal clauses.

Nearly four in ten Latinos are uninsured. "Si se puede…" can mean "IF she can…" and this conditional statement hints at the obstacles that remain after the HHS decision. IF a Latina can get health insurance, IF she can make it to a provider's office who can provide culturally-competent care in her language, and IF she can obtain and fill her prescription, THEN she will be able to fully enjoy the benefits of no-copay birth control.

The Department of Health and Human Services has adopted guidelines for insurance coverage on women's preventive health services that include all the recommendations recently made by the Institute of Medicine and require new health insurance plans to cover women’s preventive services such as well-woman visits, breastfeeding support, domestic violence screening, and contraception without charging a co-payment, co-insurance or a deductible.

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

What’s at stake in the HHS decision around the IOM recommendations on contraception?  First, the health and rights of women who will benefit from easier access to contraception. And second, the IOM’s action draws attention to the extent to which contraception  has become yet another front in the nation’s unending culture war.

When my mom knew my birth control was not only preventing "changes in my mood" but also the chance that I could get pregnant, she stopped paying for my birth control; she said, “I am not supporting your habit.”