An unholy alliance between the Bishops and the right-wing attack machine

If you’ve been listening to the pundits, you might think Catholics are unhappy with President Obama’s decision to require insurance companies to cover contraception.  But a couple of polls released yesterday showed that just isn’t true!

Well over half of voters, including a majority of Catholic voters, support the decision to require insurance plans to cover contraceptives.  And support is even stronger among Catholics who don’t identify with a political party.  They agree that all women should have access to contraception, have it without a co-pay, and have it no matter where they work.

This is no surprise because we've known for a long time that the vast majority of Catholics quietly ignore Church teachings on this subject.  Catholic women use contraception at rates almost identical to the general population -- 98 percent of Catholic women who have had sex with a man have used a contraceptive method.

But the Catholic Church leadership -- a group that notably has no personal experience with bearing out-of-pocket contraception costs -- is lobbying hard against the new coverage requirement.  They accuse the President of forcing Catholic-affiliated institutions to violate their religious beliefs by providing workers with insurance that covers contraception.  (Does it also violate their beliefs, we wonder, to pay workers with money that they might spend on the contraception a woman needs to stay healthy or to keep her family economically secure? But we digress…)
 
The truth is that the law already strikes a balance between women’s health needs and religious interests.  Churches and houses of worship that hold religious beliefs against contraception are already exempt. This is about whether people who work at Catholic hospitals (more than 550,000 full-time employees and 250,000 part-time workers) and universities will have access to basic preventive health care.  The policy is based on the widely shared belief that your health care benefits should not depend on what your boss believes.
 
Now Congress is getting in the act.  Right-wing politicians who want to dismantle health care reform are attacking the decision to cover contraception.  Under the guise of defending religious freedom, conservatives in Congress are trying to repeal this important preventive health guarantee.  We shouldn't be surprised, but just two years ago when Congress enacted the health reform law, it demonstrated much greater wisdom.  At that time, Congress said that medical and health experts should decide which women’s preventive health services should be covered by insurance plans.  And when the medical experts considered the question, they concluded that contraception is an integral part of the basic preventive care women need to stay healthy.
 
Make sure your Senators and Representatives know that you think insurance should cover a woman's basic preventive health care needs, including contraception, no matter where that woman works.  Send them a message today!
 
So let's recap:

• Medical experts say contraception is preventive health care;
• The law says insurers must cover preventive health care at no additional cost to consumers;
• The President says he will require insurers to follow the law with respect to contraception;
• The President provided a religious employer exemption for churches that is consistent with state laws that have been tested and held up in courts;
• Right-wing politicians are hiding behind religious arguments to advance the conservative political attack on the health reform law.

The Catholic bishops keep lobbying, and the conservative politicians keep attacking, so you have to keep going too!  Tell your members of Congress that, as Catholic theologian Keith Soko noted, this is health care for the 98%!

This blog is part of the #HERvotes blog carnival

Single 18 year-old female. Desperately seeking affordable and accessible contraception.

I have very fond, nostalgic memories of my undergraduate years at Fordham University.  But a few days ago a friend of mine sent me a NYT article on the struggles women at Fordham are having today to get access to contraception, and it brought back some not-so-happy memories of my own contraceptive struggles and those of my friends from our years on the campus of that Catholic school.  Looking back, I now realize that finding contraception at Fordham was kind of like trying to find a suitable mate through a wanted ad.  Even though you know it’s out there, you can’t believe what you have to go through to get it! 

With the hindsight that I’ve gained, what stands out to me is not just the shocking extent of the restrictions we faced but also our impressive ability to circumvent the rules and forge out on our own to find ways to protect ourselves and our bodies.  As a freshman, I started experiencing irregular periods and being too far away from home to make an appointment with my own gynecologist, looked to what seemed to be the next safest and least intimidating option - the Fordham student health center.  The nurse practitioner told me that it was nothing to worry about, probably stress. If I wanted, she said, I could go on birth control to regulate my periods BUT she couldn’t prescribe it for me. I felt so stuck, but realizing what I needed for my body, reluctantly called my mother, mumbled something about irregular.. you know that time of the month and we managed to get a prescription for me. 

My friends and I learned through trial and error and word of mouth how to get the contraceptives we needed to keep ourselves healthy.  We banded together, and friends helped friends and friends of friends.  A few months into our freshman year, I went with my scared roommate, by cab, to an unfamiliar part of the Bronx in search of the emergency contraception (EC) she needed, having already learned the lesson that it wouldn’t be available on campus. After waiting for over an hour, we were told she wouldn’t be getting EC at that hospital either “due to their policy.”  I cannot be certain what policy it was, we didn’t have the courage to ask, but my guess is that it was also a Catholic hospital.  She gave up and just waited anxiously through the following weeks to see what would happen, but we put the experience to good use, telling others not to go THERE for help.  Like me, after that she turned to her mother for a more long-term solution. Too uncomfortable to say she was sexually active, she mumbled about cramps and was able to get her mom to send her birth control every month.  I also vividly remember a girlfriend warning me that if I were ever sexually assaulted, I should tell the ambulance to bring me to the hospital farther away from campus and not the closer Catholic one.

It was also during my freshman year that I earned the nickname “the condom girl,” after becoming known for having an unending supply of condoms that I picked up from the HIV/AIDS outreach organization I volunteered for.  I knew my friends, thwarted by the university policy banning contraception, were having unprotected sex, so I kept the condoms in my room and word definitely got around.  My friends and class mates would knock on my door, approach me after class or at a bar to ask for condoms, and I always made sure to have some.  But I soon learned that the university would not tolerate even a slightly more public effort to give students access to this contraband contraception.  During a notorious binge-drinking weekend I put a manila envelope filled with condoms on my door, with the simple message: “Stay Safe.”  Within hours, my R.A. had removed the envelope, telling me that distribution of condoms was against school policy. 

During my time at Fordham, I became a trusted and sought-after source of sexual health education and advice.  I urged my friends and classmates to get tested for HIV, to use condoms and told them how to find EC.  At the time, I just saw the need and did what it took.  But now I can see how shocking our experiences were and I am angry about it!  Why should students who are struggling to adjust to life away from home for the first time and a challenging academic curriculum have to jump through all those hoops simply to get what they need to stay healthy and prevent pregnancies that they are in no way prepared to handle? How did I, an 18 year old freshman, become the trusted source?  Why weren’t our R.A.s or the student health center providing this information and the contraceptive access we needed?

When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would not expand the religious employer exemption for contraceptive coverage, but would require religiously affiliated hospitals, social service agencies and schools to comply with this new rule, it was a great victory for women and for women’s health.  But Catholic universities are still fighting it, arguing that the decision violates their religious values.

Really? The Jesuit values that Fordham University claims to be guided by were one of the reasons I chose it as my college.  It proffers itself as a university that is about nurturing the individual, and as the current President of Fordham says, about challenging students “to be bothered by the realization that [we] don’t know everything and bothered by injustice.”  How can you teach me to honor those values and fight social injustice when you deny women the reproductive freedom to realize their full potential?  When you establish policies that impose reproductive oppression?  Fordham students still experience the same struggles for contraception that I faced over a decade ago, and recently created a contraception fund for students.  Restricting women’s access to contraception does not honor the Jesuit values and traditions that I still deeply respect. 

Catholic universities claim that requiring them to provide students with access to contraception violates their religious conscience, but as my colleague wrote in the Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need newsletter last month, whose conscience matters anyway in birth control decisions?  The majority of my friends from Fordham were, and still are, practicing Catholics and I know we all agree that a woman’s own conscience matters the most in matters relating to her health and life.

Fordham may not value our opinions enough to change its policy, but our enthusiastic support – and the support of millions of women like us -- for the HHS contraceptive coverage decision will help shore up this policy.  Women speaking out about their support can make sure that right-wing politicians and Catholic bishops aren’t able to take away the historic gains in health care access that we’re making because of the new health reform law.  Please thank HHS for making the right call for women!   

This blog is a part of the #HERVOTES blog carnival.

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We're not giving up!

We all celebrated two weeks ago when President Obama stood strong with women and the Department of Health & Human Services announced that it would not expand the exemption that lets certain religious employers off the hook for requiring full insurance coverage for contraception without extra costs.  This victory happened because you raised your voices, and the President heard you!
 
But the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was lobbying for an expansion of the exemption, hasn’t given up.  During Mass last Sunday in churches all across the country, Catholic bishops and priests criticized the decision. And you’ve probably seen or heard them talking about it outside of church too because they’re all over the airwaves and the newspapers.  Despite decades of trying, they’ve failed to convince Catholic women to obey the Church’s ban on using contraception, but the bishops are still trying to impose government rules that would deny women the chance to make their own decision about their own health care.
 
We can’t give up, either!  Contraceptive coverage at no extra cost is going to make women healthier and families more secure economically.  We need to make sure everyone understands that -- no matter what the bishops say.  We have to stand strong for this critical victory.

We need you to raise your voices, too. The RWV website gives you two easy ways to speak out about what this decision means to you – by sending a thank you email to HHS and contributing a photo in the gallery on our website (send your photo to info@raisingwomensvoices.net).  Please make sure you do both. 
 
And don’t stop there! Let everyone know why this was the right decision for women by sending a letter to the editor of your local paper in response to any articles that are published about the bishops' criticisms of the contraceptive coverage requirement.  Or better yet, write an op-ed!
 
 What to say?  Here are some talking points:

• Contraceptive coverage is a critically important preventive health service for women because it enables us to plan and space pregnancies. The Institute of Medicine provided convincing evidence of the health benefit from contraceptive coverage, and the Department of Health and Human Services was right to require it of all new insurance plans.
• The vast majority of Catholic women use contraception and disagree with the Catholic Bishops. The Bishops should not be able to use government rules to impose their views on employees and students at Catholic hospitals, social services agencies and colleges.
• Making contraception affordable gives women and families the chance to make their own decisions about family planning -- a woman's employer shouldn't make that decision for her.

This blog is part of the #HERvotes blog carnival

What difference does a co-pay make? Plenty!

Posted by Cindy Pearson, Co-Founder Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need

What difference does a co-pay make?  Plenty!

I’m 57.  It’s been a long time since I’ve used contraception.   When I did use it, back in the last century, pills and other kinds of contraceptives were all very affordable.  If you picked up your pills at the drugs store and paid out-of-pocket – which is what you had to do back then since no insurance plans covered contraceptives – you might pay $5/month for a cycle of pills.  And if you were young or poor or both, it wasn’t hard to find a clinic that offered pills for $1/month.  Even though the minimum wage was only $3.35, pretty much everyone could afford to use contraception when they wanted. 

What’s it like now?  In a word – bad.  Most contraceptives are so expensive that I honestly don’t know a single person who tries to pay the full cost of a prescription contraceptive out-of-pocket.  It’s true that women with insurance are now much more likely to have coverage for contraceptives than back in the old days.  But sadly, as coverage has expanded, co-payments have gone up.  Way up.

My 21-year old daughter and her friends are facing co-payments that are so high, there’s almost no way these young adults can earn enough to pay for contraception … assuming that they’re also paying for rent, food, transportation and all the other costs faced by young adults.  Yes, it’s true that the minimum wage has more than doubled since the last time I was a regular contraceptive user.  But what’s happened to costs?  Have they doubled, too?  Hardly!  My daughter’s friends are being charged $40/month co-payments when they buy their pills at the drugstore.   Even student health centers, traditionally a go-to place for low-cost prescriptions, are charging $20/month co-payments.   And don’t even get me started about the cost of IUDs!  Would you believe $800 for the device itself, not including the practitioner’s fee?

I’m angry at pharmaceutical companies for charging such outrageous prices.  And as a leader of a consumer advocacy group, I can promise you that we’ll keep putting pressure on these companies.  But in the meantime, we need to rally round the administration’s new rules that require insurance companies to cover contraception without any additional fees like co-payments or deductibles.   It’s the best chance we have, right now, to make sure that costly co-pays don’t stand between a woman and the contraception she needs. 

Part of the #HERvotes blog carnival.

Calling On President Obama to Demonstrate His Respect for Women

President Obama likes to talk about the fact that he lives in a household of strong women.  When he does it, he seems genuinely pleased and proud to be able to talk about his daughters, his wife and his mother-in-law in those terms.  And as a feminist, it makes me happy that we have a president who respects women and takes pride in his association with strong women.

But I’m hearing rumors lately that the president may be about to announce a decision that fundamentally disrespects women.  Instead of standing strong in defense of contraceptive coverage – a provision of health reform that will help to make the promise of affordable access to the health care we need real for millions of women – the White House may be about to strip that promise away from some women.

It’s not just women’s health advocates, like me, who think that contraceptive coverage is good policy.  Medical experts from the Institute of Medicine reviewed the evidence and concluded that contraception is a proven and essential preventive health service for women.  Public opinion research shows that most people agree that insurance companies and employers should cover contraception without co-pays. 

But there’s a narrow minority of religious leaders who don’t agree, and they’re pulling out all the stops to put pressure on the White House to let some employers play by different rules, denying women who work for those employers the coverage they need to lead healthy reproductive lives.  The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is calling for a broad exemption from the contraceptive coverage policy that would give employers the right to make health care decisions for the women who work for them.  That’s not respecting women – and it’s not what we expect from President Obama!

The consequences of allowing religiously affiliated employers to deny contraceptive coverage have become painfully apparent in some states in recent years. The president should listen to the voices of the women who have had to live with the results.

In Muskegon, MI, employees of secular Hackley Hospital lost their contraceptive coverage when the hospital became part of a Catholic healthcare system.  One nurse described the burden and anxiety that the coverage exclusion imposed on her family, and the desperate need they feel for help:

“We are just praying I don’t get pregnant until we can figure out how to get something. … My third pregnancy I lost twins. … I can’t go through more. It’s taken a toll on my marriage.”

Another woman noted that although the policy respects the religious view of her employer, it fails to respect her own views:

 “If I have health insurance,” she said, “I should get birth control . . . why should I have to follow what they believe?” 

The broader religious employer exemption being proposed would replicate these women’s experiences, nationwide.  President Obama, we’re calling on you to show your respect for ALL women – please, stand up for the contraceptive coverage policy that respects our right to make our own decisions about contraception.

The 99% need their Health Care Reform

Emotions are running high down in Zuccotti Park. Occupy Wall Street has unified people around the need for change in our society. Protesters are sick of not being able to find a job, not being able to afford a home, not being able to stay healthy. Check out the clip below of some interviews with protesters at Occupy Wall Street.

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Forty Years of Influencing Women’s Health Around the World

This year The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective celebrated the publication of its seminal book “Our Bodies, Ourselves” 40 years ago. This book ignited changes in health care delivery in the US and worldwide. In the early 1970’s women knew very little about our bodies. Doctors had all of the information and told patients what they wanted them to know. We did not have access to our medical records and there was almost no health information available. Doctors were in charge of our health made no attempts to share information with us which made them function like gods among us. One woman reported that her physician told her that her pregnancy was none of her business. Don’t worry about it leave it up to him. So you can see, the publication of this book that provided us with valuable, never before heard of health information was manna for our hungry souls.

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How much would you pay to have your colon looked at?

OK, I admit, that’s a pretty distasteful headline. It could have been worse, though, couldn’t it? No one likes to think about having a long tube inserted through their rectum up into their intestines, which is what it takes to look at the colon. And that long tube is only part of the yucky story. To be ready for the tube, you have to stop eating and create medically induced diarrhea by drinking vast quantities of sickly sweet goop.

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