{"id":112236,"date":"2015-05-24T23:40:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T05:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gardner-unveils-birth-control-plan\/"},"modified":"2015-05-24T23:40:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T05:40:40","slug":"gardner-unveils-birth-control-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gardner-unveils-birth-control-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Gardner unveils birth-control plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Now-U.S.
Now-U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner officially announces his candidacy for the U.S. Senate at Denver Lumber Company on Saturday, March 1, 2014, in Denver. Gardner this week made good on a campaign promise to encourage over-the-counter birth control, but pro-choice groups are skeptical.<\/span>Chris Schneider\/Associated Press file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner this week made good on a campaign promise to introduce legislation that would encourage the sale of birth control over the counter.<\/p>\n

But groups from the pro-choice world are skeptical, suggesting the move stemmed from a campaign ploy after Gardner was criticized for supporting federal \u201cpersonhood,\u201d or assigning constitutional rights to the unborn.<\/p>\n

The legislation aims to encourage 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. It also would repeal a provision of the Affordable Care Act that restricts the use of health, medical and flexible-savings accounts to purchase over-the-counter drugs without a prescription.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to allow women the ability to make their own decisions about safe, effective and long-established methods of contraception,\u201d Gardner said in a statement. \u201cMost other drugs with such a long history of safe and routine use are available for purchase over the counter, and contraception should join them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yuma Republican touted the plan on the campaign trail last year when he faced off against then-incumbent Mark Udall, a Democrat. The move came as Gardner was criticized for supporting federal personhood legislation, which many feared would ban common forms of birth control.<\/p>\n

Gardner said at the time that he did not support a nearly identical ballot initiative in Colorado that would have created personhood, yet he remained a sponsor of the federal proposal.<\/p>\n

Pro-choice groups worry that Gardner\u2019s proposal would actually take away coverage for birth control, pointing to the provision that would repeal a portion of the Affordable Care Act. The section of the ACA requires insurance plans to cover all FDA approved methods of contraception at no additional cost. Several forms of birth control are now offered free to women as part of their insurance plans under the ACA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this legislation, he\u2019s trying to limit women\u2019s access to contraception by undermining the Affordable Care Act and double-billing them, first for insurance then for full retail cost of their birth control,\u201d said Karen Middleton, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado. \u201cThis adds up to hundreds, even thousands, of dollars many women don\u2019t have in their budget \u2013 and if birth control isn\u2019t affordable, it isn\u2019t accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado called the proposal an \u201cinsult to women,\u201d highlighting that birth control is currently free to many.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenator Gardner pretends he is expanding access to birth control when in reality he doesn\u2019t make birth control more affordable, doesn\u2019t expand the availability of IUDs and other effective methods,\u201d said Cathy Alderman, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado. \u201cHe has joined other senators who have long histories of opposing access to contraception in trying to pass sham legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro-choice groups skeptical of Republican senator<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112237,"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-112236","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\/112236","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=112236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112236"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=112236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}