Pro-Choice Maryland

From PP:
The Obama administration has issued final rules guaranteeing women coverage for birth control with no co-pays. Your boss, your insurer, or your college shouldn't be able to stop you from getting coverage. But it's not official yet -- you have until JUNE 19 to tell the Dept. of Health and Human Services that you support coverage for all

From NOW:
UPDATE (Feb. 7, 2012): Oh, no! Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod went on television Tuesday morning and suggested the president may cave to the Catholic bishops on birth control after all.

This comes after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops intensified its lobbying and media spin campaign following the Department of Health and Human Services' recent decision against expanding a so-called conscience or refusal clause. Expanding the refusal clause would have allowed religiously affiliated employers to evade a key provision of the Affordable Care Act by refusing to offer their workers health care plans that cover birth control.

President Obama needs to hear from you right away, even if you wrote him before the decision was released -- tell him not to cave to the bishops! New polling shows a strong majority of voters think that women employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraceptive coverage as other women, and a majority of Catholics agree with this sentiment.

Please send the president a message AGAIN!

From NOW:
President Obama is on the brink of a decision that could throw access to basic birth control under the bus. Under intense lobbying from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the president is poised to potentially expand an already sweeping refusal clause that allows employers to deny birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

( Background )

President Obama needs to hear from those who do not represent the narrow view of the bishops (who publicly refer to offering contraceptive coverage to individual women in the United States as an attempt to "neuter religion"). He needs to hear from you now.

From Credo:
The extreme anti-choice members of Congress have launched yet another all-out attack on Planned Parenthood.

This time, Congressman Cliff Stearns, as Chairman of a House oversight committee, has initiated a massive investigation into the activities of Planned Parenthood and its affiliates based on the blatantly incorrect assertion by rightwing activists that Planned Parenthood misuses federal funds to pay for abortion services.1

Reps. Henry Waxman and Dianna DeGette have written a letter to Rep. Stearns, asking him to stop the investigation of Planned Parenthood and accusing him of using this investigation to further his vendetta against Planned Parenthood. This investigation is nothing more than a backdoor tactic to shut clinics down by harassing the organization and creating a significant drain on its management and resources.

Tell Rep. Stearns to stop abusing his position of authority to launch a backdoor attack to shut down Planned Parenthood. Join Reps. Waxman and DeGette in calling for an end to this politically motivated and completely baseless investigation. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

( More )

Planned Parenthood provides an invaluable service by providing family planning and other vital health care services to women. One in five women in the U.S. have visited a Planned Parenthood clinic at some point in her lifetime. We must stand up against this politically motivated attack on Planned Parenthood to ensure that, once again, the anti-woman forces in Congress fail in their attempt to shut down Planned Parenthood.

There's a very real risk that abortion coverage could be made so complicated it becomes virtually unavailable – so we need to act now.

Despite our best efforts, last year's health reform bill included onerous new restrictions on abortion coverage. But there's hope: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is still making decisions about how to actually put the law into effect.

If they get it wrong, women could lose access to abortion coverage. HHS is accepting public comments on the law, but for a limited time only. We need to speak out by September 16.

Tell HHS to protect women's access to abortion coverage

From NARAL:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it will accept medical experts’ recommendation that birth control be covered by insurance with no copays.

The end of copays for birth control is the biggest victory for women’s health in a generation!

It’s mind blowing that women who fall on hard times are forced to choose between paying their bills and staying on birth control. Your action ends this dilemma for women in the future – every time they fill their birth-control prescription at the pharmacy counter and no longer have to pay a copay.

The HHS policy helps make near-universal contraceptive coverage a reality. It will allow a woman to choose the birth-control method that she and her doctor agree works best for her, whether that’s a pill, patch, IUD, or something else.

As we mark this progress, I also want to let you know that the Obama administration is proposing to allow certain employers to opt out of the requirement. We believe that all women should have access to contraceptive coverage, regardless of their employer.

Improving women’s access to birth control is positive in so many ways. A woman who can plan when to have a family is able to participate in society more fully. Allowing women to plan and space their pregnancies contributes to healthy childbearing. And ultimately, fewer unintended pregnancies can reduce the need for abortion.