On November 9, 2011, President Barack Obama delivered an inspiring keynote speech at the National Women’s Law Center’s Annual Awards Dinner. In his speech, he praised the Freedom Riders and efforts to promote women’s equality.
In the past year, thanks to the health care law:Over 20 million women with private insurance have received at least one preventive health care service without a co-pay or deductible.
Over 39 million women no longer face lifetime limits on coverage, so they can get the health care they need.
About 2.5 million young adults gained health coverage because they could stay on their parents’ plans.
And this is just the beginning. The health care law is working for women by helping them get the care they need. So why are some opponents of the law fighting to take away these benefits and common-sense protections?
Sign the Petition
The new health care law is working for women
Join our campaign and sign our petition to tell your leaders: I Will Not Be Denied!™
The health care law is working for women, helping them get the care they need. The law provides important benefits and protections that promote better health and lower costs. Now, millions more women can get preventive services like mammograms and colonoscopies without a co-pay. The law also stops insurance companies from dropping anyone’s coverage simply because they’re sick.
But this is just the beginning. Later this year, millions more women will have access to well-woman exams and birth control without a co-pay and all health plans will have to include maternity care. Other important benefits and protections will continue to roll out until the law is fully implemented, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to charge women higher premiums than men. But opponents of the law are fighting to take away all these important benefits and common-sense protections.
Take a stand and help us protect women’s health care. Join the National Women’s Law Center’s campaign and tell opponents of affordable care “I Will NOT Be Denied.”™
Continue Federal Unemployment Insurance Benefits through 2012
Tell Congress: Millions of workers will lose federal unemployment insurance at the end of February unless you act now!
They’re at it again. I’m sure you remember the feverish news cycle — federal unemployment insurance (UI) benefits were set to expire right before the holidays in December. House Republicans passed a bill that would slash the UI safety net (and more). At the last minute, Congress agreed to continue federal UI benefits for two months. But that extension expires in less than a month. We need your help to prevent millions of unemployed workers from losing the lifeline of UI benefits.
Tell Congress: Fully Renew Unemployment Insurance for 2012 — no cuts, no barriers to benefits!
The House Republican leadership is still pushing to dismantle UI, with drastic benefit cuts and new barriers that would prevent many jobless workers from accessing these vital benefits.
If we don’t act now to ask for a ‘clean’ renewal of federal UI benefits, harsh cuts and punitive barriers to benefits could be tacked on to the bill. The bill passed by House Republicans in December called for slashing benefits by more than half in states with the highest unemployment, denying benefits for workers without a high school diploma or GED, drug testing applicants for UI benefits, making jobless workers pay for their reemployment services, and allowing states to divert unemployment benefit funds to uses other than paying worker benefits.
With unemployment expected to remain above 8 percent this year and long-term unemployment still at record highs, Congress must continue federal UI benefits through 2012. Tell Congress to do right by millions of Americans struggling to get back on their feet!
Don’t let it get down to the wire again — ask your Members of Congress TODAY to pass a clean UI extension with no cuts or barriers to benefits!
Thank you for all that you do to help us protect women and their families. Millions of Americans depend on these benefits, and we will keep you updated as the deadline draws closer.
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 religiousemployer 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,
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.
Thank Secretary Sebelius for standing firm and issuing a final rule providing women access to birth control with no co-pays.
Because of you, many women will not lose access to no-cost birth control under the health care law.
WWW.NWLC.ORG
For months now, we’ve been updating you on a new “interim” rule that would provide women across the country access to birth control with no co-pays. This morning, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it was issuing a final rule providing contraceptives without co-pays and refused to expand the religious employer exemption.
Over the summer in its temporary rules, HHS deemed birth control a necessary preventive health service for women, thus requiring coverage without co-pays by the Affordable Care Act. It also would allow a narrow set of religious employers to deny this critical coverage to their employees. But that didn’t satisfy opponents of contraception.
They wanted the coverage to be dropped, or at least to expand the exception to nearly 1.5 million employees and the women in their families. HHS stood firm, taking a giant step forward in protecting women’s health. Join us in thanking Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for standing firm and issuing a final rule providingwomen access to birth control with no co-pays.
It is crucial that women have access to affordable birth control to prevent unintended pregnancies, plan the timing and size of their families, and protect their health. The reality is that nearly all sexually active women in the U.S., regardless of their religious beliefs, use contraception at some point in their lives. Contraception is a preventive health service that should be covered, as HHS has determined. While any exception is unwarranted, an expansion of the exemption would have meant that nearly 1.5 million employees and the women in their families would lose the right to no-cost birth control.
For many years, the National Women’s Law Center has worked to get contraception covered in all health insurance plans, and we won’t stop now. Over the past few months, you’ve joined our effort and sent over 100,000 messages as part of our birth control — we’ve got you covered campaign. And we need your help again — thank Secretary Sebelius for the basic coverage now provided, and urge her to work to make sure that those women whoseemployers fit into the exception get access to contraception.
Thank you for all that you do to support women’s access to reproductive health care.
Sincerely,
Be a Seed for Change 
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