Hold On to Your Birth Control! ACLU Forecasts Big Year Ahead for Reproductive Rights

[DonViejo]

by Erin Matson [1], Special to RH Reality Check

Don’t expect legislators opposed to reproductive rights to tread lightly in 2013 just because voters made it clear extreme approaches to health care aren't popular, warned the American Civil Liberties Union in a media conference call Tuesday.

The most intense focus of activity is expected to remain at the state level. During the last two years, slightly more than 35 state legislatures played host to major abortion battles. While the scope of anti-abortion rights state-level efforts are expected to remain about the same, "That doesn’t mean we’ll see as many will pass as the last two years," said Elissa Berger, a state advocacy and policy counsel for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

Across state lines, the group expects legislators opposed to reproductive rights to focus on six major areas: restricting the availability of medication abortion; banning abortion as early as 20 weeks; requiring ultrasounds and other forms of medically unnecessary care; banning insurance coverage for abortion, particularly in new health exchanges; using the imprimatur of religious freedom to ban access to health care within secular environments; and continuing to implement onerous regulations of women’s health clinics, sometimes referred to as TRAP laws.

At the federal level, another year of intense debate is expected to surround the new contraceptive coverage benefit under the Affordable Care Act. The benefit mandates insurance companies provide no-copay contraception along with other forms of preventive care to beneficiaries of health insurance plans provided through primarily secular institutions, including non-profit colleges and hospitals with a religious affiliation.

In 2012, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had led opposition to the contraceptive benefit, even after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a compromise that would have private, third-party insurance companies completely subsidize the cost of providing the benefit to individuals.

-snip-

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/01/08/hold-on-to-your-birth-control-aclu-forecasts-big-year-ahead-reproductive-rights

[NutmegYankee]

1. The war against the anti-choice fanatics never ends.

[wandy]

2. With some types of health plans a copay is the norm for most proceadures....

It is for the plan I use and I don't consider the amount to be unreasonable. That might just be my view of things.
I have no idea what the copay would be for a "normal" month to month contraceptive benefit.
Would it be all that expensive? Honestly curious.
More to the point, is this the right place to draw a 'battle line' rather than concentrating on some of the other issues mentioned in this OP.
Some of the restrictions wanted by the right wing religious wackos are not only foolish but can also be life threatening.
Restricting reproductive care, let's just call it medical care, is abhorrent.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. How do some women...

continue to vote for republicans?