Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services announced today the Obama Administration will not broaden the religious exemption for contraceptive coverage under the Preventive Care package of the Affordable Care Act. This request, primarily by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, would have denied millions of American women contraceptive coverage, including students, teachers, nurses, social workers, and other staff (and their families) at religiously-connected or associated schools, universities, and hospitals, as well as institutions, such as Catholic Charities.

Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, stated, “This is a landmark victory for the health of young women. We applaud this decision for women by Secretary Sebelius and the Obama Administration. Birth control is the number one prescription drug for women ages 18 to 44 years. Right now, the average woman has to pay $50 per month for 30 years for birth control. No wonder many low income women have had to forgo regular use of birth control and half of US pregnancies are unplanned. This decision will help millions of women and their families.”

[Ms.]

This is awesome. As I’ve mentioned here before, contraception is not my #1 reason for taking BC, but rather so that I can have a functioning reproductive system. So it burns me up that the co-pay is so much, as if it’s not as important as other types of prescriptions. This will save me $720/year, which isn’t chump change—and I don’t even have a family to support, so imagine the impact elsewhere. Big ups and big thanks to the Obama administration for this one.

(via citysleep)

Excellent news! What a stupid request that was.