Advocacy

April 11, 2012

In protest of a Rhode Island bill that would require ultrasounds before abortions, PRCH board member and Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Education Project faculty member Michelle Forcier, MD, MPH, submitted written testimony today to the state’s House Committee on the Judiciary. Dr. Forcier wrote, in part, "It would be wrong to enact a bill where the intended effect is to manipulate women or attempt to make them feel guilty." Read the rest of her testimony here.

March 13, 2012

Leadership Training Academy Fellow Andrea Angelucci, DO, wrote in USA Today: “A government-mandated sonogram won't change [my patient’s] mind, but it will cost her money and possibly make her ashamed of having a safe, legal medical procedure.” Read the rest here.

February 16, 2012

Last week, we were relieved that the Obama administration affirmed the need for affordable access to birth control for all women, regardless of where they work. But now Congress is considering companion bills that would allow any employer with a moral or religious objection to contraception to deny this insurance coverage to its employees. Tell your senators and representatives to stop this legislation and protect workers’ birth control coverage.

Today, Douglas Laube, MD, submitted written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform showing the importance of contraception to the health of women and families. At that hearing, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) read one of the stories in Dr. Laube's testimony as part of her comments in support of requiring employers to cover birth control. Watch the video.

Read more physicians' stories about patients show why these bills must not pass. Millions of American women rely on birth control to stay healthy, and their health insurance must meet that need. Email your members of Congress today.

February 10, 2012

Today, President Obama announced a change in the Department of Health and Human Services' rule regarding insurance coverage for birth control. Religious nonprofits will be permitted to shift the responsibility for their employees' contraception coverage to their insurers.

In our press statement, our board chair, Douglas Laube, MD, MEd, expresses relief that this arrangement will allow those who work for religiously affiliated institutions to have the same access to affordable birth control as the rest of the American workforce.

But we face a new challenge to the contraception coverage rule and women's health. Dr. Laube explains that bills now in the House and Senate would allow "[h]ospitals, schools, factories, retail chains—any employer with a moral or religious conflict with contraception" to withhold that coverage from their employees. Their workers would have no way of obtaining that coverage. Read more about the legislative threat to contraception coverage.