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Maryland Contraceptive Equity Act

Family planning has well established benefits for women, babies, families, and communities. In addition to health benefits for women and their children, family planning is associated with improved social and economic outcomes including: educational attainment; workforce participation; income; and family stability.

The law solidified Maryland’s trailblazing role in women’s health care. Maryland was the first state to mandate contraceptive coverage in 1998, and in 2016, Maryland became the first state to legislate the most comprehensive insurance coverage of birth control in the nation. The new law, that went into effect on January 1st of 2018, provides Maryland women and men expanded access to birth control, at little to no cost. It also ensures that cost will no longer be a barrier to women and men seeking birth control.

Key components of the Contraceptive Equity Act include:

  • Eliminates most co-payments for birth control.
  • Lifts pre-authorization requirements for Marylanders obtaining IUDs and implants.
  • Makes Maryland the first state in the nation to provide equity in contraception access for men by broadening coverage of vasectomies without co-payments.
  • Makes Maryland the first state in nation to provide insurance coverage for over-the-counter contraceptive medications, like emergency contraception such as Plan B. 
  • Allows an individual to receive six months of birth control at one time so that she no longer has to return to her doctor or to the pharmacy each month to pick up her birth control.

View all the Bill provisions and our support HERE

View House Bill 1005 | View Senate Bill 0848 

Check Out MCEA in the News: 

Business Insider - Maryland passed a law to give women access to free birth control
New York Magazine - Maryland Women Will Have the Easiest Access to Contraception in America
MIC - Maryland Just Took a Huge Step For Women by Offering Free Birth Control
Reason Magazine - Contraceptive Equity Act Promises "Free Vasectomies and Emergency Contraception In Maryland"
Washington Post - Hogan signs bill to make birth control cheaper
Think Progress - Maryland Passes The Most Sweeping Birth Control Access Law In The Country
Rewire - Maryland Moves to the Forefront in Birth Control Access
BuzzFeed - Maryland Just Made Birth Control, Plan B, And Vasectomies Free
Inquistr - New Maryland Bill For Contraceptive Equity Just Made All Birth Control Methods Including Vasectomies Free
The Baltimore Sun  - New law puts Maryland at 'forefront' of birth control access
The Washington Post - Hogan signs bill to make birth control cheaper
WJZ 13 Baltimore - New Md. Law Makes Birth Control More Affordable, Accessible
WBAL 11 - New law mandates coverage for some contraception

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