Contraception is basic healthcare for women. In fact, 95% of women use prescription contraceptives during their childbearing years.

And yet...

The Birth Control Protection Act, which states that birth control is NOT abortion and NOT subject to abortion laws, has failed to pass the Virginia General Assembly five times.

In 2005, a bill that would have required health insurance plans with prescription benefits to cover prescription contraceptives did not pass.

Contraceptive Equity in Health Insurance

Twenty states have contraceptive equity laws - laws that say that insurance plans that cover prescription drugs must also cover all contraceptive methods and services. Virginia does not have a contraceptive equity law. Virginia law requires that insurance companies offer employers a plan that covers contraception, but the law does not mandate that employers purchase these more equitable plans for their employees.

Earlier this year, the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) released a study revealing that state contraceptive equity laws have significantly increased insurance coverage of contraceptives. In those states that have contraceptive equity laws, contraceptive coverage has increased substantially for all plans – even for those plans that are not subject to these laws.

To learn more about this study, read U.S. Insurance Coverage of Contraceptives and the Impact Of Contraceptive Coverage Mandates, 2002 on the AGI website.

Emergency contraception is safe and effective, and has recently been approved for over-the-counter use by the Food and Drug Administration.

Emergency contraception is not the same as mifepristone (RU 486). It does not cause abortion and will not work if a woman is already pregnant.

The Alan Guttmacher Institute estimates that EC prevented 51,000 abortions in 2002 and may account for 43% of the decline in abortions from 1996 to 2000. If more widely available, EC could prevent 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year in the United States alone.

However, access to EC is routinely opposed in Virginia by the same legislators who oppose abortion. For example, they have tried to make Virginia's colleges stop dispensing EC to students, and refuse to require emergency rooms to offer EC to rape and incest survivors.

There are numerous documented cases of pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control or emergency contraceptive pills. Currently, thirteen (13) states allow some healthcare providers to refuse to provide services related to contraception.

In 2002, the Virginia House of Delegates introduced a bill that would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. It was defeated, but we should not assume that Virginia state legislators agree that contraception is basic healthcare for women.