Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans. This also included other preventative services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. Supporters for the initiative believe that this is a positive step forward in finally having universal coverage of contraception.
Critics lobbied incredibly hard to include an exemption that would have allowed any religiously-affiliated employer to opt out of providing such coverage. The Obama Administration vetoed that push and with this approval, it makes it so that only houses of worship and other religious non-profit organizations that “primarily employ and serve people of the same faith” will be exempt.
Will this new legislation finally protect the rights of women who rely on insurance to cover high contraceptive costs? Or will this simply further incite birth-control foes to attack federally-funded organizations such as Planned Parenthood that provide contraception?
