Judy Waxman, National Women’s Law Center

Getting the coverage you deserve!                 What to do if you are charged a co-pay, deductible, or co-insurance for preventive services. We’ve been working hard to make sure you and your families know about the preventive coverage provided through Obamacare. We’ve heard from many women about how much this coverage has helped them! But we’ve also heard about some women encountering problems while trying to get these services without cost-sharing. Have you gone to the pharmacy to get your birth control thinking you wouldn’t have a co-pay — only to find out that you did? Or have you gone to the doctor thinking your annual visit would be covered without a co-pay — but it wasn’t? When your insurance company isn’t working for you, we’re here to help. Check out our newest resource: “Getting the Coverage You Deserve: What to Do If You Are Charged a Co-Pay, Deductible, or Co-Insurance for a Preventive Service.” Thanks to Obamacare, health care plans under the reach of the law must cover women’s preventive health services like mammograms, birth control, and breast feeding supplies without imposing deductibles, co-insurance or co-payments. But some insurance companies are still, incorrectly, making us pay for these services. So we’ve created an easy-to-use resource for you to make an appeal to your insurance company when you’re incorrectly told to pay for your preventive care. Check out our resource today and make sure you’re getting the health care you deserve! Want to learn more? Visit www.nwlc.org/preventiveservices. Sincerely, Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law Center     P.S. If you have a question about using the toolkit, or you have trouble getting a preventive service covered and you’re unsure why, let us know! We might be able to help. Please contact us at 1-866-PILL4US or via email at pill4us@nwlc.org.

CARE2 : Health care decisions

       The CEO of organic producer Eden Foods thinks his job title gives him the right to make reproductive health choices for all his female employees. Tell him he can’t deny any women affordable birth control.

Your Boss Doesn’t Get to Control Your Medical Decisions

NWLC: What does religious freedom mean

Birth Control Is a Personal Decision                 Show your support of the plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays and hassles available to women, regardless of where they work. True religious freedom means that everyone has the right to make his or her own personal decisions, including whether to use birth control. But some bosses want to impose their religious beliefs on their employees. Last time I checked, your employees had religious beliefs, too. The April 8 deadline to stop these bosses is fast approaching! Show your support for the plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays and hassles available to women no matter where they work. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a proposed rule whose goal is making birth control without co-pays and hassles a reality regardless of where a woman works, and the agency is asking people to comment on it. But some lawmakers and religious organizations don’t agree. They believe that if your boss has a certain religious belief, you’d better live by it, too. This is your last chance to show your support — we need to speak out and make sure that essential health care like birth control is available for all women who need it. Tell HHS you support its plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays and hassles available to women, regardless of where they work. The reality is that nearly 99% of sexually active women, regardless of their religious beliefs, use contraception at some point in their lives. It’s 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. Thank you for everything you do in the fight for reproductive health. Sincerely, Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law Center     P.S. Your support allows us to continue to fight for women’s health, as well as work on many other critical issues. Please consider making a generous donation today.

When your pharmicists says NO

Only seven states hold pharmacies accountable if their employees block women from getting their birth-control prescription filled. Seven.

This problem won’t be fixed until women in all 50 states get the respect and service they deserve at the pharmacy counter.

Last week, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) reintroduced the Access to Birth Control Act to end pharmacy refusals – and now it’s up to us to help get it passed.

More than 16,000 people supported this bill in just a few short days. That’s a great start, but now we need you to weigh in so that lawmakers in Washington hear from enough constituents.

Thanks for helping us make choice real for all women.

- Ilyse

---

Nothing should get between you and your prescriptions.So don’t let anti-choice pharmacists block women from getting birth control!

 

Imagine the humiliation of taking prescription from your doctor to the local drugstore to be filled only to be lectured by the pharmacist. It’s utterly ridiculous, yet it happens all the time, all across the country to women filling prescriptions for birth control.

Pharmacies must be held accountable if their employees obstruct and harass customers. And women have to know that they can get their medical needs met in a timely fashion.

Today, members of Congress are taking action. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) are reintroducing the Access to Birth Control Act to finally fix this problem.

Will you email your lawmakers today and ask them to support the bill?

If all the women in the country who use or have used birth control weigh in, we’ll get this thing passed. If men who have daughters, sisters, or wives who have used birth control weigh in too, our voices will be a deafening roar to stop these kinds of actions against women.

Rogue pharmacists have done all sorts of outrageous things to avoid filling a woman’s birth-control prescription. Refusing to return a woman’s prescription… claiming that birth control is out of stock when it isn’t… even telling a woman she’s a slut for using birth control. We’ve seen it all.

Only a national law will stop them.

Call on your senators to stand by a new bill that will stop this insulting behavior.

It’s time for all pharmacies – from huge corporations to mom-and-pop stores – to have policies in place that make sure women get their prescriptions filled.

Thanks for helping us make choice real for all women.

 Ilyse Hogue President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Birth Control and Bosses Don’t Mix : NWLC

Support Birth Control without Co-pays                 Tell HHS you support a workable plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays available to women, regardless of where they work. Something is wrong with this picture: you, your boss, your birth control. The reality is birth control and bosses don’t mix. This isn’t a question, at least for you and me. But there are actually people who think that bosses should be able to make their employees’ personal medical decisions — over 50 bosses have even gone to court over it. The health care law guarantees that women can get birth control covered with no co-pays or deductibles. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a proposed rule whose goal is making sure this is a reality regardless of where a woman works, and the agency is asking people to comment on it. Bosses who oppose this will be speaking out. We need you to speak out even louder in support of birth control without co-pays for women, regardless of where they work. Send in your comments today and tell HHS you support a workable plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays available to women, no matter where they work. When studies show that 99% of sexually active women use contraception, and that Catholic women use contraceptives at nearly the same rate as the general population, it’s shocking that some employers are trying to block access to birth control. Women must have access to no-cost, comprehensive birth control coverage without extra burdens or barriers, as promised in the health care law. So it’s up to us to ensure that the Administration’s plan gives women the ability to get seamless coverage of affordable birth control, no matter who their boss is. Tell HHS that bosses shouldn’t stand in the way of a woman getting seamless access to birth control. Send in your comments today and show your support of a workable plan to make birth control coverage without co-pays available to women, regardless of where they work. We need to stand strong against these efforts to make sure important preventive health services — including birth control — are available and affordable for women who need it. Thanks for fighting for women’s reproductive health. Sincerely, Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law Center    P.S. Your support allows us to continue to fight for women’s health, as well as work on many other critical issues. Please consider making a generous donation today.

CARE2:Manu National Park , Pro-Choice and more

Hormone Disruptors Labeled “Global Threat” By UN                                     In 2002, the WHO and UN released a report suggesting that concerns about chemicals known as hormone disruptors wasn’t necessarily merited, because… read more Oklahoma May Deny Women Affordable Birth Control Because It ‘Poisons Their Bodies’                                     Oklahoma already prevents women from using their insurance plans to help cover abortion services, but Republicans aren’t stopping there. read more

Is the South About to Become a Legal Abortion-Free Zone?                                     If Alabama is successful in following Mississippi’s lead and passes a host of new regulations designed to drive abortion clinics in the state out of… read more Gas Company Withdraws Plans To Drill In Manú National Park                                     Barely a week after we reported on Pluspetrol’s plan to begin exploratory drilling in a protected area of the Peruvian Amazon, the Argentinian… read more

Paul Ryan and Sequestration

Opposed to birth control ?

 

President Obama is leading our nation one step closer to near-universal contraceptive coverage!Now we need to get his proposal adopted.Add your support to a critical 60-day comment period. Last Friday, President Obama took an important next step to make sure that most American women can get their birth-control coverage at no personal cost. The Department of Health and Human Services released a draft regulation that ensures that women who work for faith-based organizations don’t lose rights guaranteed to the rest of us under Obamacare. The President went to extra lengths to protect these women while taking into consideration concerns of religious leaders. Still, there are some opponents to women having contraception at all who just can’t take yes for an answer. Just yesterday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said they oppose the regulation and will use a mandated comment period to try to stop these protections from moving forward.1  So, it’s up to us to help secure this big win for women and families and make near-universal birth-control coverage a reality. A 60-day comment period just started. If enough of us weigh in, we’ll drown out the anti-women, anti-choice forces. Will you add your comment in support of the regulation? By improving access to birth control, the Obama administration is working to give women the tools they need to prevent unintended pregnancy – a goal on which both pro-choice and anti-choice people ought to agree. The Catholic Bishops are not alone in mobilizing to stop this rule from taking effect. Susan B. Anthony List called it “unacceptable.”2 Please add your comment supporting this important policy today. Make sure the Obama administration hears loud and clear from people who support birth-control coverage. Thanks. Together, we can get to a world where choice is real for all women. Ilyse Hogue President, NARAL Pro-Choice America 1 – “Catholic Bishops oppose revisions to contraception mandate,” The Hill, February 7, 2013 2 – “On contraception, White House tries to balance the rights of access and of conscience,” MSNBC, February 1, 2013

We Stand with Barack Obama

Oct 12, 2012 by     BarackObamadotcom

Share this: http://OFA.BO/yrVgoj Tweet this: http://OFA.BO/rbFeSC
Voiceover: “As you’re making your decision … maybe you’re wondering what to believe about Mitt Romney.”
“Well, when it comes to protecting your access to birth control …  and the basic women’s health care services Planned Parenthood provides … one thing we must remember, is this:”
Mitt Romney: “I’ll cut off funding to Planned Parenthood.”
Voiceover: “He’ll cut it off. Cut us off.”
Mitt Romney: “Planned Parenthood. We’re going to get rid of that.”
Voiceover: “Women need to know … the real Mitt Romney.”

Oct 12, 2012 by     BarackObamadotcom

Are you in? http://OFA.BO/DLnzBr
President Obama has fought for Native American communities to increase opportunities for tribes and individual tribal members. The President has respected and worked hard to strengthen our government-to-government relationships.  This administration also recognizes our history together and acknowledges the unique heritage of Native peoples that includes you in the dreams that we all share.

Aug 24, 2012 by     BarackObamadotcom

Learn more: http://OFA.BO/WbWDgC
Republican women share their history with the Republican Party and how the party’s views are no longer aligned with their own. They don’t support Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and share how Romney and Ryan are wrong for women.
As they share:
“If you truly believe in a small government. That government shouldn’t be deciding what I can and cannot do with my own body.”
“There is no way on God‘s green earth that I would consider voting Republican.”
“I don’t even want to think about them having control—as a woman I don’t.”
“If you’re a conservative woman, and you believe in small government, then Barack Obama is your candidate because he’s keeping the government out of the decisions that should remain between you and God, and you and your own conscience.”

Mitt Romney and birth-control

 

 

Mitt Romney is ready to make birth control more expensive. What do you think he’d tell a woman who will be forced to choose between buying groceries and paying for birth control because of his anti-contraception policies? Find out – get Romney to answer this question at the presidential debate!

Mitt Romney doesn’t want this election to be about his anti-contraception position – women would never vote him into office.

That’s why his campaign is trying to dismiss the issue of birth control altogether.

When a reporter asked Ann Romney if health plans should cover contraception, she refused to answer, saying, “You’re asking me questions that are not about what this election is going to be about. This election is going to be about the economy and jobs.”¹

Wait a minute – for many women, birth control is an economic issue. But Mitt Romney doesn’t want you to know that his policies are going to make it even harder for women who live paycheck to paycheck to fill their birth-control prescriptions.

We’ve got to make sure women who tune in to the presidential debate on Wednesday know what Mitt’s policies will mean for them.

Please urge Jim Lehrer and the Commission on Presidential Debates to ask Mitt what he’d say to women who will be forced to choose between buying groceries and paying for birth control because of his anti-contraception views.

Mitt Romney wants to eliminate federal programs that make birth control more affordable. He’s threatened to end no-cost birth control coverage.

Romney even supports the Blunt amendment, which would give your boss the right to deny you birth-control coverage for virtually any reason.

One in three women struggles with the cost of birth control. Romney’s policies would make it a lot harder for these women to pay back college loans and cover daily expenses like groceries.

It’s time Romney answers to the women who struggle to pay for birth control.

Tell Jim Lehrer and the Commission on Presidential Debates to press Mitt Romney on how his views on birth control will hurt women.

Thanks for speaking out.

In solidarity,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

---

1. “Ann Romney Refuses To Answer Questions About Birth Control,” Think Progress, September 7, 2012