We recently told you about an important victory for women: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a final rule providing contraceptives without co-pays AND without an expansion of the religious employer exemption.
But contraception opponents aren’t giving up, even though there is a religious exemption: they’ve launched a full-court press to try to overturn this crucial decision. They’ve filed court cases, they’re pressuring politicians and they’re taking to the airwaves and editorial pages in a coordinated effort to try to turn back the clock on contraceptive coverage. They don’t want you covered, and we can’t let them win.
Please help NWLC push back, by making a generous donation to support this fight on contraceptive coverage and our other fights to protect women and women’s health.
Over the summer, HHS deemed birth control a necessary preventive health service, thus requiring insurance plans to cover it without co-pays under the Affordable Care Act. This month’s announcement affirmed that momentous decision, and your work was vital in assuring that it happened. Since the summer, you sent over 100,000 comments in favor of the policy, and HHS listened.
The agency’s decision did allow a narrow set of religious employers to deny this critical coverage to their employees. But opponents of contraception aren’t satisfied: while they’d prefer the coverage to be dropped altogether, for now they’re trying to find alternative routes to expand the exception to include religiously “affiliated” hospitals, universities and other organizations. More than 1 million employees and the women in their families would be affected if they were to succeed.
We can’t let them win — help us work to keep this vital advance in place.
For many years, the National Women’s Law Center has advocated for equity in health insurance coverage, including working to ensure that women have access to affordable contraception and other preventive services. And, with support from friends like you, this year the hard work paid off. Please don’t let this victory be temporary — help us protect the contraceptive coverage decision and fight for other issues so vital to women.
You helped before and we won. But the struggle isn’t over, and I know you’ll do your part once again. Thank you.
Sincerely,

Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Please help today by making a generous donation to support NWLC’s work on contraceptive coverage and other fights vital to women and women’s health.