The rule vastly expands the Obama Administration’s religious accommodation to include “nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and individuals that have nonreligious moral convictions opposing services covered by the contraceptive mandate.” The covered entities include21:
- churches, integrated auxiliaries, and religious orders with religious objections
- nonprofit organizations with religious or moral objections
- for-profit entities that are not publicly traded, with religious or moral objections
- for-profit entities that are publicly traded, with religious objections
- other nongovernmental employers with religious objections
- nongovernmental institutions of higher education with religious or moral objections
- individuals with religious or moral objections, with employer sponsored or individual market coverage, where the plan sponsor and/or issuer (as applicable) are willing to offer them a plan omitting contraceptive coverage to which they object
- issuers with religious or moral objections, to the extent they provide coverage to a plan sponsor or individual that is also exempt.
The Administration says women losing coverage can get contraceptives through Title X clinics or other government programs. Of course, many women losing coverage are employed, and earn above the low income (100% of the federal poverty level) eligibility requirement for Title X assistance. To address that, the Administration, through its proposed Title X regulations, broadens the definition of “low income” in that program to include women who lose their contraceptive coverage through the employer-base health insurance plan. This move further limits the ability of the Title X program to adequately care for already-qualified individuals.
The Administration’s rule also relied on major inaccuracies, which ACOG corrected.22 First, ACOG pointed out that, in fact, FDA-approved contraceptive methods are not abortifacients, countering the Administration’s contention that contraception is an abortifacient, and that contraceptives cause abortions or miscarriages. Every FDA-approved contraceptive acts before implantation, does not interfere with a pregnancy, and is not effective after a fertilized egg has implanted successfully in the uterus.23 No credible research supports the false statement that birth control causes miscarriages.24
Second, ACOG offered data proving that increased access to contraception is not associated with increased unsafe sexual behavior or increased sexual activity.25,26 The facts are that:
- The percentage of teens who are having sex has declined significantly, by 14% for female and 22% for male teenagers, over the past 25 years.27
- More women are using contraception the first time they have sex. Young women who do not use birth control at first sexual intercourse are twice as likely to become teen mothers.28
- Increased access to and use of contraception has contributed to a dramatic decline in rates of adolescent pregnancy.29
- School-based health centers that provide access to contraceptives are proven to increase use of contraceptives by already sexually active students, not to increase onset of sexual activity.30,31
Third, ACOG made clear the benefits to women’s health from contraception. ACOG asserted: As with any medication, certain types of contraception may be contraindicated for patients with certain medical conditions, including high blood pressure, lupus, or a history of breast cancer.32,33 For these and many other reasons, access to the full range of FDA-approved contraception, with no cost sharing or other barriers, is critical to women’s health. Regarding VTE, the risk among oral contraceptive users is very low. In fact, it is much lower than the risk of VTE during pregnancy or in the immediate postpartum period.34
Continue to: Regarding breast cancer: there is no proven increased risk...