Contraception in the News

I got a call several days ago from a guy trying to figure out if he should have a vasectomy. That may sound like a strange phone call. But as the coauthor of a book on contraception, sometimes I find myself having odd conversations with complete strangers. At least they’re thinking through the issues! Today’s New York Times reported that a medical advisory panel has recommended to the government that the U. S. require all insurers to cover women’s contraceptives, making them free as part of the new health care law. Officials responded by saying they were inclined go with the panel’s counsel. If the government agrees, new requirements would kick in at the beginning of 2013. As expected, the news received mixed reactions. Generally, physicians and women’s groups cheered the news, while the Roman Catholic Church "booed." I fall somewhere in the middle. I believe in many cases contraception is just fine. It’s the stuff that destroys human life that I take issue with. And I hate to see our government covering that. About half of all U. S. pregnancies are unintended, and about 40 percent of these end in abortion. So more contraception means less unintended pregnancy and abortion. Except… the coverage would also include emergency contraceptives, including Plan B. (For more on that, go here.) If a woman has not yet ovulated, Plan B may be a good choice. But sometimes such contra-conception actually ends a pregnancy. In such cases can we really say it has cut down on the number of abortions? One panel member, Prof. Anthony Lo Sasso, a health economist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, disagreed with the recommendation. He said the report includes “a mix of objective and subjective determinations filtered through a lens of advocacy.”