Plan B

Please Get Out of My Uterus

My first contraceptive was an IUD. But if I worked for a religious organization/company that provided my health insurance there’s a good chance I’d have to pay the $500 to $1,000 an IUD costs myself because my employer-provided health insurance–for which I pay a premium–wouldn’t cover it.

That’s what a federal judge ruled last week when he granted a preliminary injunction filed by Christian publisher Tyndale House to exempt IUDs and emergency contraception (Plan B) for its employees (read: women). Why? Because, the company claims, they are forms of abortion (note: this blog is not a treatise on whether abortion is right or wrong).

So if I read the ruling right, it means that if I work for Tyndale, and I either can’t use or choose not to use hormone-based contraception, I have to fork up a substantial chunk of change for an IUD. And, for the record, an IUD is also prescribed for women with heavy menstrual bleeding–even those who don’t need contraception. Will the company also withhold coverage for this indication?

In addition, if I’m raped, or the condom broke, or I forgot a couple of pills, or my partner didn’t use a condom, or there was … Continue Reading

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abortion contraception health insurance IUD Plan B Tyndale House

Plan B: Another Double Standard

For what appears to be the first time in history, the head of the Health and Human Services Department has overturned a decision by the FDA. Was this regarding a drug that was so potentially dangerous it could kill or permanently maim people? A drug for which we have little clinical trial evidence or history? A drug that is produced in appallingly unsafe conditions?

No. It is a drug–actually, a single pill–for which we have years of safety and efficacy data, that is exceedingly safe and easy to use, and, get this — doesn’t even require a prescription from a doctor–if you’re 17 and older.

What it does is require is that the patients buying it be at least 17 years of age and head to the back of drugstores to give their names and identification to a pharmacist before receiving it. Oh, and if the pharmacist doesn’t want to provide it, he/she doesn’t have to. And it does require a prescription for those 16 and younger.

It’s Plan B, aka “emergency contraception.” All its manufacturer was asking was that we stop requiring that women who need it — those who had unprotected sex, missed a couple of birth control … Continue Reading

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double standard FDA HHS Plan B reprodutive rights Sebalius