Starting in December, the ACA, or Obamacare, plans no longer will cover these natural family planning methods; however, the plans still will cover contraception, abortifacient drugs and devices, according to The Federalist.
Many women and couples use fertility awareness-based family planning because it is natural and less expensive and does not have the side effects that birth control drugs and devices often do. There are a number of different methods, but, generally, they teach women to understand their body’s natural fertility cycle and recognize when they are most likely to become pregnant. This helps the couple to achieve or avoid pregnancy.
Though less expensive than birth control, these methods can cost up to $500 for training and materials to track fertility; and the Affordable Care Act has covered these expenses since 2016, The Federalist reports.
In late 2021, however, the Biden administration revoked this coverage under a new rule slated to go into effect in December, according to the report.
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The Alliance Defending Freedom and Dr. Cami Jo Tice-Harouff, of Texas, believe the Biden administration made the change illegally. They filed a lawsuit in May challenging the new rule.
Tice-Harouff offers fertility awareness-based family planning to her patients, but, more than just a method of avoiding or achieving pregnancy, she said she also uses it as a tool to diagnose gynecological and hormonal problems.
“Women shouldn’t have to fear losing their doctor and insurance coverage for fertility awareness instruction as a result of back-room government decisions,” ADF senior counsel Julie Marie Blake said. “Countless women rely on Dr. Tice-Harouff’s expertise to help them raise families in a manner consistent with their medical needs. It is wrong and unlawful for the Biden administration to push its own, preferred method of family planning on all women.”
Their lawsuit accuses the Biden administration of violating regulatory laws when it revoked coverage for fertility awareness-based methods of family planning, leaving coverage of only contraceptive and abortifacient drugs and devices.
“Women who practice fertility awareness-based methods make serious personal and financial decisions to do what’s best for their family and their conscience,” Blake said. “Removing insurance coverage could devastate these families.”
The change comes at a time when the Biden administration is working aggressively to expand abortions. Recently, he began allowing abortion drugs to be sold through the mail without even a doctor’s visit. Biden also wants to get rid of the Hyde Amendment and force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions.
If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade this summer, he also is considering welcoming abortionists to practice on federally-governed military bases in pro-life states, according to The Post Millennial. The idea is to allow unborn babies to continue being aborted in states with abortion bans and to protect abortionists from prosecution.
A new report from the Guttmacher Institute found that abortions increased from 2017 to 2020, and approximately 930,000 unborn babies were aborted in 2020.
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