WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Birth control is shaping up to be another battleground in the war over healthcare reform, U.S. conservative activists said.
The administration hopes an outside panel will recommend contraception be included in "preventive services" insurers must provide to women, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Many doctors, like Dr. Hal C. Lawrence III, vice president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say helping women plan pregnancies and prevent unwanted ones improves their health and that of their children.
The Catholic Church and conservative groups like the Family Research Council disagree. They argue that requiring insurers and healthcare providers to make contraception available could force them to act against their consciences, the Times reported.
"The government should focus on services that prevent disease," Jeanne Monahan, head of the Family Research Council's Center for Human Dignity, said. "Fertility and babies are not diseases. Fertility occurs in healthy women."
