Birth Control News and Research

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First Edition: March 26, 2014

Today's headlines include reports that the Obama administration will extend the deadline for signing up for insurance through healthcare.gov.

26 Mar 2014

High Court to hear arguments today in case mixing religious freedoms and health law's birth control coverage requirement

The case, which touches various politically charged issues, could have implications beyond the health law's birth control coverage requirement.

26 Mar 2014

High court hears arguments regarding the birth control coverage mandate

Justices appeared divided over this case, which involves both issues of religious freedoms and a provision of the health overhaul.

26 Mar 2014

Viewpoints: Be careful what you pray for; health law 'freakouts;' concerns about imported drugs

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider a proposition that will strike many Americans as bizarre: that large, for-profit businesses can refuse on religious grounds to comply with a federal mandate that they include contraception in their employee health plans (3/25).

26 Mar 2014

First Edition: March 25, 2014

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including stories previewing today's Supreme Court action regarding the health law's contraception coverage mandate.

25 Mar 2014

Supreme Court to hear health law contraceptive case on Tuesday

At issue is whether for-profit companies, such as Hobby Lobby, are entitled to the same religious protections as individuals or religious organizations.

25 Mar 2014

Viewpoints on challenge to contraceptive coverage mandate

This week, the owners of two secular, for-profit corporations will ask the Supreme Court to take a radical turn and allow them to impose their religious views on their employees - by refusing to permit them contraceptive coverage as required under the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court has consistently resisted claims for religious exemptions from laws that are neutral and apply broadly when the exemptions would significantly harm other people, as this one would. To approve it would flout the First Amendment, which forbids government from favoring one religion over another - or over nonbelievers (3/22).

25 Mar 2014

Viewpoints: Predictions of rising premiums in 2015; anniversary of health law

No one challenges reality like Kathleen Sebelius, who assured the world on Sept. 30, 2013 that the Affordable Care Act website would be open for business the next day. "We're very excited about tomorrow," Sebelius said. "Shutdown or no shutdown, we're ready to go."

24 Mar 2014

High Court to hear religious freedom challenge to contraceptive mandate

The health law returns to the Supreme Court next week when justices consider a challenge by two companies seeking relief from the contraceptive coverage requirement.

21 Mar 2014

First Edition: March 20, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about how the GOP is challenging the Obama administration's authority regarding the health law on various fronts, including the employer mandate delay and the birth control coverage mandate.

20 Mar 2014

House Republicans plan: Delay individual mandate for five years

The idea is to use the savings to reverse the annual SGR cut for Medicare doctors. Also, a group of Catholic employers in Oklahoma is suing about the health law's contraception coverage exception.

14 Mar 2014

First Edition: March 13, 2014

Today's headlines include details of Wednesday's Capitol Hill testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

13 Mar 2014

Viewpoints: 'Middlling news' on enrollment; 'secret mandate exemption;' Obama's surprising appearance between two ferns

By the beginning of the month, 4.2 million people had selected a plan. But that doesn't mean they have insurance. Reporters on a conference call asked about the number who had paid, and the administration's representatives said they don't know.

13 Mar 2014

Polls examine support for health law, contraceptive coverage requirement

A CNN/ORC poll detected a slight increase in support for the overhaul, with much of it coming from upper-income and college-educated people. Meanwhile, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found 53 percent of Americans agree with the rule requiring most employers to cover contraceptive coverage.

13 Mar 2014

First Edition: March 12, 2014

Today's headlines include stories about the Obama administration's latest tallies regarding how many Americans have signed up for Obamacare coverage and the outcome of a Florida special election that was marked by health law themes.

12 Mar 2014

Parsing the ACA's impact on farmers, community health centers

Farmers, who often rely on individual policies, may find it easier to get routine medical care through policies sold on the health law's online exchanges. Meanwhile, community health centers face reduced federal support in fiscal 2016 and the battle over the law's contraception mandate highlights a dispute over whether certain forms of birth control prevent conception or destroy a fertilized egg.

12 Mar 2014

New theory regarding cause and development of endometriosis

Changes to two previously unstudied genes are the centerpiece of a new theory regarding the cause and development of endometriosis, a chronic and painful disease affecting 1 in 10 women.

10 Mar 2014

Women using DMPA injection more likely to acquire HIV than women using NET-EN

Women who used an injectable contraceptive called DMPA were more likely to acquire HIV than women using a similar product called NET-EN, according to a secondary analysis of data from a large HIV prevention trial called VOICE, researchers from the National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network reported today at the 21st Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston.

5 Mar 2014

Majority of women experience reproductive coercion and intimate partner violence

Enough women experience reproductive coercion - male behavior to control contraception and pregnancy outcomes - that a research team now recommends health care providers address the subjects with their patients and tailor family planning discussions and recommendations accordingly.

4 Mar 2014

Viewpoints: Frightening seniors; regulating e-cigarettes; waiting for black lung drugs

The Obama administration's proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage plans - the private insurance plans that cover almost 30 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries - are fair and reasonable. As it happens, they are also mandated by law. Yet Republicans, sensing a campaign issue, are telling older and disabled Americans that the administration is "raiding Medicare Advantage to pay for Obamacare." The health insurance industry, for its part, is warning that enrollees will suffer higher premiums, lower benefits and fewer choices among doctors if the cuts go into force (3/1).

4 Mar 2014