On ACA Anniversary, Planned Parenthood Celebrates Health and Economic Benefits of the Law’s Birth Control Benefit

For Immediate Release: Jan. 30, 2014

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Stands Strong in Commitment to Ensure Every Woman – No Matter Where She Lives or Who Her Boss Is – Has Access to No Co-Pay Birth Control

WASHINGTON — In advance of Saturday’s third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s enactment, Planned Parenthood Federation of America released the following statements and key statistics celebrating the tremendous health and economic benefits that access to no co-pay birth control makes for women and their families. Evidence-based studies demonstrate that access to the full range of FDA-approved contraceptives without cost sharing – as provided by the Affordable Care Act – leads to significantly lower rates of unintended pregnancy. Despite that, some anti-women’s health politicians and bosses are still fighting to deny women access to affordable birth control.

• Birth control has helped improve maternal and infant health.  When women plan their pregnancies, they are more likely to access prenatal care, ultimately improving their own health and the health of their children. 
• Public polling finds overwhelming support for women’s access to birth control. Seven in ten Americans (70 percent) believe that health insurance companies should be required to cover the full cost of birth control, just as they do for other preventive services, according to an October 2012 poll by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
• Women use birth control for a wide range of health related reasons. A report on the overlooked benefits of oral contraceptives from the Gutmacher Institute found that while the most common reason women use the pill is to prevent pregnancy, 58 percent of pill users also cite non-contraceptive health benefits as a contributing factor. 
• Birth control reduces unintended pregnancy. Additionally, the Contraceptive CHOICE study led by the Washington University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology demonstrated that access to birth control counseling, drugs, and devices without cost-sharing — as promised in the Affordable Care Act — leads to significantly lower rates of unintended pregnancy. 
• Access to birth control is not just a health issue, it’s an economic issue. A 2010 survey found that more than a third of female voters have struggled to afford prescription birth control at some point in their lives, and as a result, used birth control inconsistently.  This isn’t surprising considering co-pays for birth control pills typically range between $15 and $50 per month — up to $600 per year.  Other methods, such as IUDs, can cost several hundred dollars, even with health insurance.
• Birth control expands opportunities for women. A 2012 report from the Guttmacher Institute confirmed that women use contraception to better achieve their life goals, with the majority of participants reporting that contraception has had a significant impact on their lives, allowing them to take better care of themselves or their families (63 percent), support themselves financially (56 percent), complete their education (51 percent), or keep or get a job (50 percent).  Other reasons for using contraception, reported by a majority of respondents, include not being ready to have children (63 percent), feeling that using birth control gives them better control over their lives (60 percent), and wanting to wait until their lives are more stable to have a baby (60 percent).
• Birth control has helped women move closer to economic equity. Research finds that availability of the pill is responsible for a third of women’s wage increases relative to men. By the 1980s and ’90s, the women who had early access to the pill were making eight percent more each year than those who did not.