Access to Contraceptives Receives a Win!

• NPG
• June 28, 2023
• NPG Commentary
• 0 Comments

Biden Signs Bill to Ensure Accessibility of Contraceptives

Population activists received some very welcome news last week when President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order designed to improve access to various contraceptives. Just over a year ago, the Supreme Court ruled against Roe v. Wade, creating chaos across the nation as individual states began to implement their own rules concerning abortion. With access to abortion denied or restricted in some way in at least 20 states, access to preventative measures is more important than ever before.

            The Executive Order itself describes the need very well:

 Access to contraception is essential to ensuring that all people have    control over personal decisions about their own health, lives, and    families.  High-quality contraception improves health outcomes,    advances economic stability, and promotes women’s overall well-   being.  Contraception access is linked to improved maternal and child   health, expanded educational and professional opportunities, and    higher lifetime earnings.  

Specifically, the Order directs the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, the Treasury, and Labor “to ensure private health insurers cover all contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” according to a CNBC article on the announcement. This very much follows NPG’s long-standing belief on this broad topic. For decades, NPG’s official position has been that family planning services and products should be universally available for all who wish to receive them.

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey from November 2022 revealed that “the vast majority of females ages 18-64 (90%) have used contraceptives at some point in their reproductive years.” Clearly women are choosing to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy, and NPG applauds this effort.

U.S. population grows in only one of two ways – either through immigration or additional births. For many decades, fertility rates in the United States have been on the decline because women and couples chose to have fewer children. Ensuring access to contraceptives fulfills the wishes of most Americans and it keeps our fertility rate fairly low, ultimately benefiting the country for the very long term!

For additional reading on this important topic, we encourage you to review:

The Global Gag Rules: A Lesson in Unintended Consequences

Resurgent Pro-Natalism in the Trump Administration