birth control

The Tennessee House passed a bill Thursday codifying access to birth control and fertility treatments in the Volunteer State, despite opposition from dozens of House Republicans.

Officials with a Planned Parenthood chapter serving six states – including Kentucky – say they have experienced a “significant surge” in demand for permanent and long-acting reversible birth control options following Donald Trump’s election victory earlier this month.

Tennessee teens seeking birth control or sexually transmitted infection tests can return to their local public health clinic without a parent — a partial reversal of a six-week-old state policy that has forced public health workers to turn away minors.

It’s often difficult for Democrats to get bills passed — let alone heard — in the Tennessee General Assembly. This week, Democratic lawmakers accomplished the feat twice.

With seven weeks left before the gubernatorial election, Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron staked out a new position on Kentucky’s abortion ban this week.

The opinion upheld a Trump administration rule that significantly cut back on the Affordable Care Act requirement that insurers provide free birth control coverage under almost all health care plans.

The stakes were underlined by the fact that the argument went 49 minutes over the allotted time.

Some employers may now opt to claim a religious or moral exemption when it comes to paying for birth control, and women could end up sharing the cost with employers that scale back coverage.

With a new regulation, the administration will allow any company or nonprofit group to refuse to cover contraception by claiming a religious or moral exemption to the federal health law.

Making contraceptives available over the counter is safe, a review of research finds, and could lead to fewer unplanned pregnancies in both teens and adult women.