WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is proposing a new rule under the Affordable Care Act that would require private insurers cover the cost of over-the-counter contraception without additional costs to patients.
The move to make over-the-counter birth control free comes two weeks before Election Day as Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats campaign on strengthening reproductive rights.
The proposed rule, announced by the White House Monday, seeks to increase health coverage for nonprescription contraception to the 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance. Health coverage plans would be required to cover every FDA-approved contraceptive drug including a new over-the-counter birth control pill that went on the market this year called Opill, as well as condoms and spermicides.
“At a time when contraception access is under attack, Vice President Harris and I are resolute in our commitment to expanding access to quality, affordable contraception,” Biden said in a statement. “We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family.”
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The rule is subject to a 60-day public comments period before being finalized. It would mark the most sweeping expansion of contraception coverage under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act in more than a decade.
The Affordable Care Act already requires that most private insurance plans cover contraception but it only applies to prescription birth control pills, not over-the-counter contraception.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, warned in 2022 that access to contraception could come under assault by the Supreme Court following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned a constitutional right to an abortion established 50 years ago under Roe v. Wade.
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She pointed then to a concurring opinion by conservative Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court should “reconsider” other “demonstrably erroneous decisions” involving the due process clause. Thomas singled out Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 Supreme Court opinion that invalidated a law that forbid contraception based on a right to privacy.
“I think he just said the quiet part out loud,” Harris said at the time.
In the 2024 election, Harris has campaigned aggressively on restoring access to abortion, emphasizing Republican nominee Donald Trump’s role in overturning Roe because of his three Supreme Court justices that shifted the makeup of the court. Harris has called post-Roe abortion restrictions passed in Republican-controlled states “Trump abortion bans” and said she would sign legislation to codify Roe as president.
Reach Joey Garrison on x, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.
