 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cited family planning as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, precisely because it improved the health of women and their babies. But affordable contraception does more than protect women’s health. It also protects a family’s economic security, by enabling women to have children when they are able to support them. That’s why the American public strongly supports family planning services – with 84 percent of those polled in June by Lake Research Associates citing contraception as an important preventive health service. We are pleased the Department of Health and Human Services has adopted the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine to require that new insurance plans remove co-pays and cut out extra charges for family planning and contraceptives. This is a historic step for women’s health and the economic well-being of families across America. Pearson and Uttley are co-founders of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need. Pearson is executive director of the National Women’s Health Network. Uttley is presidentelect of the Public Health Association of New York City. See also
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