VICTORY: President Obama protects birth control access & Obama administration gives groups more time to comply with birth control rule 20JAN12

TENS of thousands of voters, women and men, spoke out and demanded that access to birth control be universal and the restrictions to it proposed by the gop / tea-baggers be rejected, and President Obama listened, rejecting the right wing extremist! Join Planned Parenthood in thanking Pres Obama for protecting access to birth control and health care for hundreds of thousands of women and their families, click the link to sign the letter. That is followed by the article on the decision from the Washington Post.

VICTORY After a massive outcry from Planned Parenthood supporters, President Obama has rejected efforts to cut off access to birth control for millions of women. Sign our thank-you card to President Obama:   This is why your voice matters. Today, President Obama rejected efforts by anti-women's health groups and their allies in Congress to cut off access to birth control for millions of women simply because they work at religiously affiliated hospitals or attend religiously affiliated universities. The Obama administration announced that these women and their families will have access to the new benefit that requires health insurance plans to cover birth control with no co-pays. This decision was never a sure thing. For months, anti-women's health groups and their congressional allies lobbied hard to undermine this important benefit. But after over 100,000 Planned Parenthood supporters spoke out, President Obama stood strong with you to protect women's health. Planned Parenthood health centers around the country are writing thank-you cards to President Obama — will you add your name? The massive outpouring of support for access to birth control we saw over the past few weeks was powerful, it was passionate, and it drowned out the opposition. You and I know that birth control is essential preventive health care. We know that expanding access is one of the most effective ways to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in America and keep women and their families healthy. We know this is the right thing to do. And because of this amazing show of support, women's access to essential care, including birth control, will be protected. I am proud and deeply grateful to know the role Planned Parenthood supporters played in securing this important victory. I also know that we can't protect women's access to care alone. We need lawmakers and leaders to stand with us when it matters — and that's what President Obama did today. Click here to help us thank President Obama on behalf of all the women whose access to birth control will now be assured. We always knew that the fight for women's health under health care reform would be a long battle. As each piece of the reform law takes effect, including this latest right, our opponents get more and more desperate. This decision from President Obama makes clear that you and I can make a real difference when we stand up. So thank you for standing with Planned Parenthood. And add your name to our card thanking President Obama for standing up to relentless pressure from anti-women's health ideologues and proving once again that he is a strong ally and partner in protecting women's health. I'm so glad to be able to share this good news with you today. Thank you, once again, for everything you do for Planned Parenthood and the women, men, and teens who rely on us to protect their access to health care. Sincerely, Cecile Richards, President Planned Parenthood Federation of America Obama administration gives groups more time to comply with birth control rule By N.C. Aizenman The Obama administration will allow religious organizations an additional year to comply with a new rule requiring employers that offer their workers health insurance to include coverage of birth control without out-of-pocket costs, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday. But the rule itself and the types of employers covered by it remain unchanged. This is likely to disappoint religious groups such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which had lobbied vigorously for a permanent exemption for all employers that oppose birth control on religious grounds. Women’s advocates and some Democratic lawmakers greeted the decision with relief, because they had feared the administration was planning to significantly broaden the categories of religious employers exempt from the requirement. The rule, which was originally proposed by the administration last August and will take effect this Aug. 1, does exempt employers such as churches whose primary purpose is to inculcate religious beliefs and that mainly employ and serve individuals who share those beliefs. However, the bishops had argued that this definition was too narrow — excluding a wide swath of church-affiliated universities, hospitals and schools. The one-year delay option announced Friday will not be available to religious institutions that already offer some degree of contraception coverage — including many Catholic universities and hospitals in states that have their own birth control requirements. To qualify for the delay, an institution must certify to federal authorities that it is a nonprofit and that, for religious reasons, it does not presently offer contraception to its workers. The employer must also notify employees that contraceptive coverage is available through other sources such as community health centers, public clinics and hospitals, with support provided to low-income patients who might otherwise have difficulty paying for it. Obama officials said the arrangement was intended to address complaints by religious groups that they would face logistical difficulties complying with the new rule within a matter of months. “This proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services,” Sebelius said in a statement. It is unclear how many women will be affected by the delay. National estimates of the number of workers employed by church-affiliated institutions are rough, ranging from 1 million to 2 million. It is also not known how many of these individuals and their dependents get health insurance through such employers, and if so, whether those plans already include birth control coverage.