For Immediate Release | July 22, 2011
Katie Kincaid | kincaid.nysenate@gmail.com | 646-784-0485
Statement From New York State Bipartisan Pro Choice Legislative Caucus on Institute of Medicine’s Recommendation to Include Birth Control as Preventative Care
This week a committee of scientists and medical experts appointed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommending that contraceptive and counseling methods to prevent unintended pregnancies be considered preventative health care and thus be provided without costs of any kind to the insured. The NYS Bipartisan Pro Choice Legislative Caucus (BPCLC) firmly supports this stance and applauds the IOM’s recognition of these vital services to women.
Throughout the country, too many women who wish to obtain contraceptive care cannot do so because they cannot afford such services. As a result, one of the undeniable outcomes stemming from the lack of counseling and preventative medications, is that half of the pregnancies in the United States are unintended. While some women chose to carry these pregnancies to term and others decide to abort, the universal reality is that these women are forced to make difficult, and often costly, decisions that could have been averted with proper, yet simple, medical attention.
