College Students on Religious Campuses to Get Contraception Covered

College students covered by their religiously affiliated university’s health insurance plans will gain access to affordable contraception thanks to a narrow religious exemption announced recently by the Department Health and Human Services. The exemption only applies to houses of worship and other religious non-profits, leaving religious campuses untouched.

The Obama administration resisted intense lobbying efforts from contraceptive opponents who wanted broader exemptions that would have included all religiously affiliated universities, according to Think Progress, opting instead to stick with the original plan.  

Lucy Panza, policy analyst with the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, ourparent organization, noted that the narrowed exemption is a win for students whose reproductive health was subject to the will of university politics prior to the Affordable Care Act’s regulations. She writes:

This is a major victory for the reproductive health of students enrolled at religiously affiliated universities that currently deny this coverage. Students often enroll at these universities without any knowledge of this gap in their health insurance, and they find themselves without the preventive care they need at a time when their income is low, their debt is growing, and their stress levels are high. While some students choose to have children while in school, most feel that it is not the optimal time to start or add to a family. Students need affordable contraception as much as other young adults do, and starting this August, they will have it with no cost-sharing, regardless of whether their university has a religious affiliation.

As Campus Progress reported last year,  a near-final regulation proposed by the Health and Human Services Department reclassified college students and individual consumers, granting students with campus health plans the same rights afforded to other Americans under the Affordable Care Act.

With this recent announcement, the Affordable Care Act will now guarantee that all college students’ reproductive destinies will be determined by the individual and not by the college campuses they choose to attend. 

Naima Ramos-Chapman is an associate editor at Campus Progress.

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