Ohio Republicans Want to Make It Harder for Women to Get Long-Term Birth Control

Ohio Republicans are backing a
bill aimed at restricting abortion access, as they do. One of
the interesting/atrocious things about this one is that it would—in
the service of reducing abortions—make it harder for women to get
the most long-acting form of birth control short of sterilization,
the intrauterine device (IUD).

The first hearing for House
Bill 351, sponsored by Cincinnati Republican Rep. John
Becker, was held yesterday. At the hearing, Becker said
insurance plans should be barred from covering IUDs because
preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg—which IUDs
could theoretically do, though they primarily work by
preventing sperm from getting to that egg in the first
place—could be considered
abortion.

“This is just a personal view. I’m not a medical doctor,” he
added. 

Sound policy reasoning there, Rep! Becker also acknowledged the
wording of the bill could be interpreted to ban coverage of birth
control pills, too, but he hadn’t intended it that way. He’s not a
medical doctor, remember, just someone trying to play one with the
weight of the state behind him.

Under H.B. 351, all insurance plans in Ohio
would be barred from offering abortion coverage. This isn’t a ban
on “taxpayer funded abortions” we’re talking about—it’s an explicit
restriction on the kinds of legal services that private insurance
companies (and by extension, employers who offer health plans) can
offer. Conservatives decry this sort of thing vociferously when
it’s Obama making every insurance company and employer cover
certain services. 

In addition to the abortion coverage ban, H.B. 351 would
prohibit public employee insurance plans and Medicaid from covering
IUDs, one of the safest,
most effective,
most cost-effective, and longest-lasting
form of contraception. 

There are two types of IUDs, a copper device and a plastic
device that releases hormones of the variety found in birth control
pills. The copper IUD is one of the only forms of birth
control—short of, say, condoms and pulling out—that doesn’t involve
synthetic hormones. The upfront cost runs
between $500 and $900, which can be prohibitive for women without
insurance coverage. In the long run, however, IUDs can end up
costing less than other forms of birth control (not to mention
abortion or pregnancy) because they’re effective for up to 12
years. 

But as the minutiae of women’s contraceptive decisions
increasingly becomes fair legislative game on both sides, expect to
see more fights over whether IUDs magically become abortion because
some people think they are. In
Saline County, Kansas, the county commission is currently at
odds over IUDs. Commissioner John Price said funds intended for
county health services to buy IUDs were “murder” and he wouldn’t
stand for it. 

Kansas is one of 10 states—along with Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky,
Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah—that
prohibit all insurance plans for state residents from covering
abortion. Twenty-five states currently have
laws prohibiting abortion coverage for plans on the state
health exchanges.