by Gretchen Borchelt

For decades, insurance companies were able to create their own rules. They denied people health coverage because of pre-existing conditions, even shamefully denying women coverage because of health needs related to rape and domestic violence. They charged women more than men for the same health coverage, simply because they were women. And they failed to cover women’s specific health needs, like maternity care.

 But the health care law, known as the Affordable Care Act, changed everything. It stopped the health insurance companies saying that merely being a woman is a preexisting condition.

 Some insurance companies are not following the law.

Tell Health and Human Services Secretary Burwell to stop insurance companies from denying women and their families the health care they deserve.

 After extensive research and hundreds of hours reviewing health plans across the country, the National Women’s Law Center uncovered hundreds of instances of health insurance companies not following the law. We recently released two reports that document how insurance companies are leaving women without critical coverage they need and that is required by law. The report includes examples like:

◾Denying maternity coverage to a woman if she enrolls in her husband’s plan.

◾Making women pay for preventive services that they should be getting without out-of-pocket costs.

◾Failing to cover breastfeeding support and supplies as required by law.

◾Denying women certain services based on an arbitrary age limit.

◾Not providing coverage for all methods of birth control.

◾Excluding coverage for transgender people.

Don’t let insurance companies continue to go rogue.

Tell Secretary Burwell to make sure insurance companies stop breaking the law.

Enough is enough.

Thanks for keeping it personal,

Gretchen Borchelt

Acting Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights

National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Check out our reports to learn more about how health insurance companies are violating the law.

I grew up knowing one thing for certain: My mom was working to make a better world for her children. She wasn’t alone. It’s what I want for my own children, and what moms around the world are fighting for every day.

Moms like Marie*, a mother of five and grandmother of one, who lives in Korogocho, one of Nairobi’s largest slums. Without family planning, she had her five babies one after the other and thinks it led to problems in her life. Now, with the help of Planned Parenthood Global partners, she has access to reproductive health information and training — and she’s sharing that knowledge with her daughter too. She says, “I would like [my daughter] to use family planning…to complete her education and have a good life.”

On this Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating moms like Marie. We’re celebrating their strength and dedication to their families, and their work to give their own children the happiest, healthiest lives they can.

Stand with Planned Parenthood Global by clicking one of the images below to share it on Facebook, and help us celebrate all the mothers who mean so much to us, today and every day.

Planned Parenthood believes in creating a world where people like Marie’s daughter are able to live healthy lives, empowered to become mothers if and when they choose to — regardless of race, income, age, or where they live. That’s why we work with partners around the world to provide reproductive health care and information, and fight every single day to protect every woman’s right to make her own health care decisions — no matter where, no matter what.

From all of us here at Planned Parenthood, Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours. Thanks for helping support mothers all over the world — together, we can make the world we want a reality.

Sincerely, Cecile Richards, President Planned Parenthood Federation of America