INDIANAPOLIS – Republican lawmakers this week removed condoms and long-acting contraceptives from a proposed Indiana program that seeks to increase access to birth control, instead replacing those options with “fertility awareness-based methods” like menstrual cycle tracking — also known as the rhythm method.
The underlying legislation, House Bill 1169, would establish a statewide, taxpayer-funded “Access to Birth Control Program” to expand birth control options for Indiana residents earning at or below 185% of the federal poverty level.
Bill author Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, said his goal is to increase birth control access for low-income Hoosiers, specifically. That roughly half of Indiana births were covered by Medicaid since 2017 “is not only tragic but unsustainable fiscally,” he said.
The original draft of his bill proposed the program cover the costs of condoms, intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants, prescription birth control pills, and other family planning options.
But an amendment offered by Rep. Joanna King, R-Middlebury, changed that birth control list to only include hormonal contraceptive patches and self-administered hormonal contraceptives, defined as a federally-approved hormone drug that a woman has been prescribed to administer to herself. That includes birth control pills, according to the amendment.
Read the rest of the Casey Smith story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
