Senators and house reps call for insurance protections for birth control

Rep. Ayanna Pressley leads effort to expand Affordable Care Act to include OTC birth control

Several congresswomen and senators reintroduced the Affordability is Access Act to Congress on Thursday. 

Under the Affordable Care Act, all private health insurance plans are required to fully cover — without copays or out-of-pocket costs — all U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, granted, or cleared methods of contraception. The Affordability is Access Act would ensure that this also applies to over-the-counter birth control. 

The Affordability is Access Act would also maintain the FDA’s sole authority to determine the safety and efficacy of drugs and make them available over the counter without a prescription, and ensure retailers provide contraception without a prescription. The legislation states that any retailer that stocks contraception that the FDA has approved, granted, or cleared without a prescription may not interfere with a consumer’s access to or purchase of such contraception.

The bill was sponsored by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus’ Abortion Rights and Access Taskforce, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), along with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Ami Bera, MD (CA-06) and Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV). 

The introduction comes after the FDA Advisory Committee’s unanimous vote last week recommending that the FDA move forward to approve the first-ever application for over-the-counter birth control. Recent polling has found that nearly 8 in 10 voters have a favorable view of birth control pills and more than 7 in 10 support making the pill available over-the-counter. 

“We must use every tool available to protect reproductive health care and affirm it as the human right that it is,” said Rep. Pressley. “Our bill would help us do just that by increasing access and affordability for birth control. I’m grateful to Senator Murray, Reps. Bera and Ocasio-Cortez, and our colleagues for their partnership on this sorely-needed bill. This far-right Supreme Court and anti-choice politicians are stopping at nothing to attack our reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy—and we won’t let up.”