Biden administration proposes new regulation expanding contraception coverage

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The White House on Oct. 21 proposed a new regulation under the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare, that would require insurers to cover over-the-counter contraception without cost sharing.

The move comes amid an election season in which contraception has been a key issue, as Democrats argue Republicans would attempt to ban it, an argument the party’s presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, has denied.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church opposes artificial methods of birth control but supports natural fertility-based awareness methods for either achieving or postponing pregnancy as an exercise of responsible parenthood.

The regulation would include a type of over-the-counter birth control pill, as well as other contraceptive methods including spermicides, sponges and condoms, the Department of Health and Human Services said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first nonprescription birth control pill in 2023.

“From day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has made clear that every woman should have access to the health care she needs. That includes contraception and other family planning services,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said. “The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers. Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”

The proposed policy is subject to a 60-day public comment period and will not likely be finalized before President Joe Biden leaves office, but could be either implemented or reversed by his successor.

HHS noted, “These proposed rules would not modify federal conscience protections related to contraceptive coverage for employers, plans, or issuers.”

In a statement, Biden said, “At a time when contraception access is under attack, Vice President Harris and I are resolute in our commitment to expanding access to quality, affordable contraception.”

“We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family,” he added.

Joseph Meaney, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told OSV News that the Catholic Church “has consistently taught that it is a grave sin to intentionally use contraceptives in order to have sexual relations that are closed to the possibility of conceiving a new human life.”

However, Meaney explained that intention is key to evaluate a medication’s moral usage as some can serve a non-contraceptive purpose but have a secondary contraceptive effect not intended by the patient.

“The ethical principle of double effect can apply to some drugs or devices that have a contraceptive effect,” he said. “If the patient takes them for the sole purpose of treating a medical condition and this is the best treatment available for the problem, it could be morally licit under some circumstances. In that case the contraceptive effect of the drug would be an unwanted but tolerated proportionate side effect. For the principle of double effect to be applicable, there must be a clear proportionality between the good and bad effects with the good outweighing the bad.”

Meaney used as an example a scenario in which “a woman who has terrible pain from ovarian cysts (may benefit) greatly from pausing their functioning with hormones.”

Other circumstances also matter in the ethical analysis, he argued, such as “a young unmarried woman for whom chastity requires abstinence from sexual relations in any case,” could in theory licitly use such drugs to treat a medical condition.

Meaney also noted the proposed policy includes PreP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) medication, which can reduce the risk of catching HIV/AIDS and can be licitly used for that intended purpose.

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