Adding another to a string of small victories as we begin this election year, the Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services announced that employers will need to cover contraception in their health insurance plans, ensuring close to universal contraceptive coverage. Earlier, the Administration added birth control to the essential benefits package on the [...]

Let’s update that federal court hearing on the age restrictions of the morning-after pill. Judge Edward Korman heard arguments yesterday, and while he did not take action against the FDA, he did move the case forward: A federal judge Tuesday rejected a request to hold the Food and Drug Administration in contempt of court over [...]

The next stage of the Plan B saga moves to the courts. Even before last week’s controversial decision keeping the morning-after pill behind the pharmacist’s counter, and requiring women under 17 to secure a prescription before purchase, a coalition led by the Center for Reproductive Rights planned to take the government to court over age [...]

I’d like to say that the decision on restricting access to Plan B has led to a backlash in Washington. I’d like to say that female and male legislators alike lambasted the decision, which will result in more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions because paternalistic policymakers didn’t want to feel icky. But the headline “Plan [...]

The President was asked today about Kathleen Sebelius’ rejection of an FDA directive to allow the morning-after pill on drugstore shelves without a prescription. And he agrees with his HHS Secretary: “I did not get involved in the process, this was a decision of Kathleen Sebelius,” Obama said, referring to his Health and Human Services [...]

Though the FDA supported it, the Department of Health and Human Services decided against allowing young teens access to the morning after pill in over-the-counter drugstores without a prescription. Though birth control is now available for free from doctors for anyone with health insurance, women under 17 facing an unplanned pregnancy will still have to [...]