Plan B

DENVER– Lawmakers Monday passed a bill in the Colorado House that would require health insurance companies to include prenatal and birth control in all plans offered to women on the individual health care market. Sponsored by Denver Democrats Beth McCann and Jerry Frangas, the bill was stripped of this strong provision in committee weeks ago in order to move it onto the floor. House watchers expected to see a fight on the floor but the bill passed on a voice vote, with only minimal questioning from conservative Monument Republican Amy Stephens, who asked if the bill would now cover so-called Plan B contraception, the “morning after” pill, which some see as akin to abortion.

Lawmakers and reproductive health advocates are in full court press to repeal an 11th-hour Bush Administration rule that threatens women’s health care set to go into effect Tuesday — hours before President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Expanding on Mike Lillis’ story today on Capitol Hill Democrats’ attempts to repeal the 11th hour Bush Administration “conscience clause” rule that threatens women’s reproductive health care, 13 states are planning a federal court challenge should political remedies fail.

It’s not often that Colorado is considered a less progressive state than its wild and woolley neighbor to the north, Wyoming.

On the matter of contraception, the Centennial State has a long way to go to catch up to the efforts of its fellow intermountain west states in preventing unintended pregnancies — especially among poor women [...]

Trotting out the pejorative “Colobama” to describe Colorado’s poor ranking on some quality of life yardstick generally evokes snickers of derision until one realizes that we really are getting the pants beat off of us on a whole host of social measures.

Suddenly, it’s not so funny any more that Alabama and other states — long [...]

Although the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of emergency contraception without a prescription last year, that doesn’t mean it’s always available at pharmacies, as Colorado Confidential reported in November. Now, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, has introduced a bill that would require all pharmacies that stock any form of contraception to also [...]

Sen. Betty Boyd will finally see a bill become law today that she’s worked for four years to get passed. Gov. Ritter will sign Senate Bill 60, which requires hospitals to give sexual assault victims information about emergency contraception. Boyd has introduced similar measures in past years, but the closest such a bill came to [...]

A bill that would require hospitals to tell rape victims about emergency contraception moved one step closer to becoming law today as Senate Bill 60 passed unanimously through the House Health & Human Services Committee. It will now go before the full House. The state Senate voted in favor of the bill Jan. 30 by [...]

Will state Senator Betty Boyd try for a fifth time this session to make emergency contraception more available to Colorado women? In past years, Boyd introduced bills that would have required hospitals to tell sexual assault victims about Plan B, which can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. It took three [...]

Women finding themselves with unplanned pregnancies have many places to turn to for help. But, some organizations purporting to offer information about “choices” actually do nothing of the sort.

Pregnancy resources centers, or crisis pregnancy centers, are organizations that try to discourage women from choosing abortion. But, the usually faith-based PRC’s often don’t disclose their purpose [...]