What We're Reading This Morning -- February 28

Good morning and happy second-to-last-day of February with leap-year tomorrow! It’s a busy day across the country as voting begins in Michigan and Arizona, the last two contests before Super Tuesday next week, and the states continue to battle over birth control. Here’s what we’re reading this morning…

75,000 Cincinnatians affected by the administration’s decision to protect no-cost birth control. “75K Cincinnati workers affected by contraceptive restrictions” – “As many as 75,000 workers throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky – about 12 percent of those who have insurance through their job – don’t have coverage for contraceptives. Some of those work at TriHealth, the medical giant with a convoluted corporate structure designed specifically to separate a Catholic hospital – Good Samaritan – from a non-Catholic hospital – Bethesda North. Others are among more than 2,000 who have lost coverage for contraceptives during the last five years when their employer merged with a Catholic health care system. Those employees are the focus of a national struggle over forcing employers or insurers to pay for contraceptives through employee health care benefits.”

2012 or 1912? The unprecedented number of attacks on birth control is eerily similar to the first campaign waged against birth control. Jennifer Seymour Whittaker in The Huffington Post: “Back to the Future” – “What's it all about? From 1914 until the eve of the Second World War, Margaret Sanger and her allies fought and won the battle to make contraception widely available in the United States. Didn't they? The recent brouhaha about contraception is eerily similar to the campaign against birth control waged during the last decades of the 19th century. In each era a campaign to cement the link between sex and procreation has deplored declining moral standards, and particularly those of indolent and irresponsible females.”

Minding the gender gap: a majority of the public supports the new birth control benefit, but women outnumber men in their support. “Public Divided Over Birth-Control Coverage” – “On the docket of contraception-related issues dividing the parties, more Americans lean toward the positions held by President Obama and most Democrats, though in several cases only narrowly, according to the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll. Probing disputes over health insurance coverage for contraception and prenatal testing, federal funding for Planned Parenthood, and whether employers must provide coverage for procedures that violate their moral or religious convictions, the survey found that women tilt more toward the Democratic position than men, with the gap usually even more pronounced among whites.”

In a state where more than one-quarter of women are uninsured, Governor Rick Perry is choosing to effectively dismantle affordable women’s health programs. “Medicaid Women's Health Program Is One Step Closer To Death” – “The Medicaid Women's Health Program provides some 130,000 Texas women with vital medical care: family planning, birth control, cancer screenings and annual exams. And for that, of course, it must die. That, at least, has long been the case as far as Republican lawmakers are concerned. And after last week, the demise of the WHP looks more likely than ever, as does a nasty showdown between the feds and the state government.”

Author Bios