Women’s Health: Advocates Seek New Plan B Consideration; Texas Lawmakers Find Planned Parenthood Decision Is Costly
NPR notes that some backers of the "morning after" pill hope to get HHS Secretary Sebelius to review age restrictions on the drug. And, The Texas Tribune examines the costs to the state because of the lack of subsidized birth control.
NPR: Post-Election, 'Morning After' Pill Advocates Want Age Rules Revisited
Friday marks a not-so-happy anniversary for some of President Obama's biggest supporters: It's exactly one year since Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius decided not to lift the age restrictions on availability of the so-called morning-after pill, Plan B. But now, with the election safely behind them, backers of the pill are hoping the administration may be willing to revisit the issue (Rovner, 12/7).
The Texas Tribune/The New York Times: Likely Increase In Births Has Some Lawmakers Revisiting Cuts
When state lawmakers passed a two-year budget in 2011 that moved $73 million from family planning services to other programs, the goal was largely political: halt the flow of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood clinics. Now they are facing the policy implications — and, in some cases, reconsidering. The latest Health and Human Services Commission projections being circulated among Texas lawmakers indicate that during the 2014-15 biennium, poor women will deliver an estimated 23,760 more babies than they would have, as a result of their reduced access to state-subsidized birth control (Ramshaw, 12/6).
