AFY_Deb
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You did it!
After months of constant activity by grassroots activists across the country asking President Obama to hold the line in the face of pressure from social conservatives, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today that it would not expand religious exemptions to no-copay birth control requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
Because of your work mobilizing on this issue, President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius decided to stand with young people and did not bow to political pressure. This decision is a victory for science, common sense, and young people in America — and it couldn't have happened without you.
Millions of young women at Catholic and religious affiliated colleges will no longer face barriers to accessing birth control through their student health plans. This decision is also a huge step forward for young people who receive insurance coverage through their parents' health care plans at religious affiliated hospitals and other businesses. The decision takes HHS one step closer to implementing the Institute of Medicine's nonpartisan recommendations that women's preventive services, including all FDA-approved methods of birth control, be covered in full.
For too long, young women's health has been treated as a political bartering chip in the halls of power. On days like today, it is incredibly refreshing when science and public health are able to survive the partisan politics of Washington.
All student health plans in the U.S. must begin offering cost-free birth control coverage in August 2012, and the young people across the country will be better off because of it.
Thank you for your letters, phone calls, and organizing efforts on this issue — and on so many others. I'm thrilled that 2012 is off to such a great start, and I look forward to continuing to work alongside you in the weeks and months ahead.
With gratitude,
Deb Hauser
President
Advocates for Youth
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