{"id":111777,"date":"2015-06-15T03:16:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T09:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/birth-control-battle-ensues\/"},"modified":"2015-06-15T03:16:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T09:16:34","slug":"birth-control-battle-ensues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/birth-control-battle-ensues\/","title":{"rendered":"Birth control battle ensues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner once again has found himself caught up in a fight over women\u2019s reproductive health-care issues. He is facing dueling proposals on offering over-the-counter birth control options.<\/span>Chris Schneider\/Associated Press file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Dueling pieces of federal legislation on over-the-counter birth control has observers asking which is the \u201creal\u201d plan?<\/p>\n

One bill was unveiled by Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner of Yuma last month, making good on a campaign promise. The legislation aims at encouraging manufacturers of certain contraceptives, such as \u201cthe pill,\u201d to apply for over-the-counter classification with the Food and Drug Administration by allowing a priority review and waiving filing fees.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the aisle, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from the state of Washington, announced just last week what the pro-choice world is calling a \u201creal OTC birth-control plan.\u201d The bill would allow for over-the-counter birth-control pills to be covered by health insurance. The pills still would need to receive FDA approval. The measure is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Denver Democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new bill will help more women be able to access birth control, while also protecting the Affordable Care Act\u2019s requirement that insurance cover it,\u201d said Cathy Alderman, vice president of Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado.<\/p>\n

The two bills highlight the politics behind women\u2019s issues. Gardner said he wants to offer women additional choices and access to birth control. Pro-choice advocates, however, say it is a political ploy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther proposals are a cheap ploy by politicians seeking to distract from their anti-choice records and designed to charge women extra for the privilege of being last in line to choose the health-care choice that is right for them \u2013 behind other politicians, bosses, insurance companies and drug-store clerks,\u201d said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.<\/p>\n

Supporters of Gardner\u2019s proposal point out that women in rural communities don\u2019t always have access to doctors who can prescribe birth control. Offering the pill over-the-counter provides greater access, they say.<\/p>\n

In response to the criticism, Gardner said: \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate they have decided to bring partisanship to an issue that could have won support on Capitol Hill, but we are pleased they are following our lead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legislation duel highlights the issue\u2019s politics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,24,945],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-u-s-sen-cory-gardner","tag-united-states-government"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111777"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}