Norton Cannot Wait to Defend D.C. Bill Expanding Access to Birth Control Pills

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In response to an article in The Hill today suggesting that Republicans could try to block a bill recently passed by the District of Columbia Council expanding access to birth control pills, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that she cannot wait to fight any and all efforts in Congress to block the bill, including in the upcoming appropriations process. The D.C. Access to Contraceptives Amendment Act would require health insurers that offer coverage of prescription birth control pills to cover a 12-month supply dispensed at one time.

The bill won final approval yesterday from the D.C. Council. Norton said that expanding access to birth control is critical to preventing unwanted pregnancies and reducing abortions, and that the bill will help reduce D.C.'s teen pregnancy rate. She noted that pharmacies are unevenly spread across the District and are particularly scarce in low-income areas.

"I applaud the D.C. Council for taking this important step to expand reproductive freedom for our residents," Norton said. "House Republicans began another war against women earlier this year when they tried, unsuccessfully, to overturn the D.C. Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibits employers from interfering with the right to privacy of women and men to make whatever reproductive choices they prefer. It would take more than blind spots to cross over into opposing birth control pills, the most common reproductive choice of American women. No groups opposed the D.C. bill in hearings, and we demand the same here for this home-rule bill embraced or tolerated by individuals and groups of every variety in the District of Columbia."