WLA celebrates contraception regulation

Percival argues the new legislation will finally bring change to Georgetown’s student health policy of not providing access to free birth control. - Photo courtesy of http://www2.tbo.comby Kelly Percival, 2L

Georgetown’s Women’s Legal Alliance applauds the Obama administration’s commitment to ensuring that all women who want it, have access to free birth control. As studentsat a Jesuit university, we are thrilled that we will have affordable access to a basic healthcare service at last.

Under the Affordable Care Act, preventive services must be covered free of charge—no copays, no deductibles. On Jan. 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that contraception would be included as one such preventive service and that all employers would have to cover the service. While the regulation contained an exemption for religious employers who employ primarily people of their same faith, such as churches, the exemption did not cover religious institutions like universities who have more diverse populations.

As soon as HHS announced the rule, conservative and religious coalitions, lead by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, voiced vigorous opposition to the regulation, claiming that requiring contraception coverage was an assault on their freedom of conscience. In effect, they assert that Catholic and Jesuit hospitals, universities, and charities have a constitutional right to ensure that employees and students at their institutions follow the teachings of the church.

I agree with the opponents about one thing – that regulation is about conscience. It is about my conscience as a woman choosing how to take care of my own body. It is about both a woman’s and a man’s conscience deciding if and when to become parents. At the core, it is about our societal conscience in ensuring that women’s equality is a reality.

Currently, Georgetown’s student health insurance plan does not coverany form of contraception. Under the policy, students can get a prescription for the pill through an override process, but only if it is necessary for medical reasons other than the prevention of pregnancy. However, this override process has failed time and again. As a result, students have struggled to find affordable birth control and have even undergone preventable surgeries.

One GULC alumna with polycystic ovarian syndrome was unable to use the override process and unable to afford birth control out-of-pocket. As a result, she ended up losing an ovary while undergoing emergency surgery during final exam period. Her ability to have children is unnecessarily in peril because of our student health policy.

The hardships produced by the current plan’s failure to cover contraception fall exclusively on female law students. That is why the WLA, as an organization committed to ensuring women’s equality in the legal profession, champions the HHS regulation.

As older students, many members of the GULC community can no longer remain on their parents’ health plans. The student plan is likely the only affordable option we have for health insurance. But it is not actually that affordable when you end up paying $3,600 for birth control over three years in law school. We should not have to face extra medical, financial, and emotional hardship simply because we are students, we are women, and we are attempting to be responsible.

We know that Georgetown Law is committed to women’s equality. The school has fully supported the WLA’s activities, and we have two excellent clinics dedicated to women’s rights, to name a few examples. But the student health plan is in tension with valuing women’s rights. In fact, the administration has been very clear that, in spite of the fact that 98% of Catholic women use some form of contraception during their lifetimes, it will not change its policy until there is a legal mandate to do so.

Thus, the WLA is delighted that such a mandate has arrived to ensure that GULC will have to change its policy to align with the 77% of other Catholic and Jesuit law schools that already cover birth control.

There are caveats to the mandate. For it to apply to students, a separate student insurance regulation still needs to pass. If it does, students will have the right to free contraception just like employees under the employer insurance regulation. Moreover, Georgetown will not actually be the one making our contraception free.

There are two reasons for this. First, the university does not subsidize student health plans; students cover the full cost of insurance. Second, last Friday, Feb. 10, as a result of political backlash, the Obama administration announced a change to the original employer insurance regulation.

Now, religious institutions like universities are no longer required to pay for contraception coverage. Instead, the cost has been shifted to insurers, who are required to provide free birth control to individuals they insure. The funny thing is, the insurance companies do not mind this new rule because it is actually cheaper forthem to provide birth control than to not, since it is cheaper than child birth and abortion. In fact, one study has shown than adding contraception coverage can lower premiums by 10% or more.

It is not clear exactly what the new student health plan will look like, but it is clear that Georgetown will finally have to offer students health plans that cover birth control at no charge. And WLA will be paying close attention when the regulations go into effect on Aug. 1, 2012 to see how Georgetown’s policy changes to comply with the new law. President Obama declared that denying access to birth control amounts to gender discrimination when he stated, in support of the contraception requirement, “A law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women.” Discrimination against women on account of our healthcare needs is wrong, and GULC students have suffered the severe consequences of it for too long. WLA sees the new law as a great leap toward both combating gender discrimination and valuing women’s rights.

Kelly Percival, 3L, is Publicity Chairof the Women’s Legal Alliance. She can be reached at kmp79@law.georgetown.edu.