In 2021, Republicans in Missouri tried to ban taxpayer funding for intrauterine devices and emergency contraception. Missouri is one of four states to exclude the family planning system, the primary provider of contraception, from Medicaid, the rest being Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas.
At the same time, the federal family planning program known as Title X is being challenged in Texas. The verdict was handed down at the end of last year It alleged that the clinic violated parents’ constitutional rights by allowing teens to use contraception without parental consent. If upheld, the ruling could threaten access to contraceptives for minors across the country.
So far, however, the Dobbs case has not sparked the kind of widespread contraceptive attack feared by contraceptive advocates. In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, access to contraception is increasing in a small number of red states. Track reproductive health measures.
In Indiana, Governor Eric Holcomb signed a bill allowing pharmacists to prescribe contraceptives. In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice signed into law a bill requiring insurance plans to cover 12 months of contraceptive supplies from pharmacies. In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill requiring Medicaid to apply intrauterine devices and other long-acting reversible contraceptives to women who have just given birth. All are Republicans.
The push for legislation declaring the right to contraception comes as the FDA considers allowing over-the-counter birth control pills for the first time. The agency’s advisory panel said last month that the benefits of over-the-counter contraceptives outweigh the risks. Anticipating possible action by the FDA, Senate Democrats recently reintroduced laws In that case, insurance companies would have to cover over-the-counter contraceptives.
But Nevada Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, one of the bill’s leading proponents, said she wasn’t sure whether supporters of the bill would win Republican support in the current post-Dobbs situation. “We think we should,” she said. “But as you know, these are difficult times, unlike ever.”
In North Carolina, the Dobbs case and abortion policy doomed the passage of a bill affirming the right to contraception, said Democratic Senator Lisa Grafstein, who introduced the bill. In an interview, Grafstein said she had spoken to at least one Republican who was interested in co-sponsoring.
